


The Veela Realm

by noxnova



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Gen, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, M/M, Multi, Post-Hogwarts, Post-War, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 08:34:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 24
Words: 71,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21966475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noxnova/pseuds/noxnova
Summary: Hermione Granger takes a “gap year”, trying to find herself, far away from Hogwarts and all it entails. It was going well until Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson and Blaize Zabini show up at her doorstep, asking for help. Draco Malfoy is missing and she is the only one who can find him, they say.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Pansy Parkinson, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger/Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson/Blaise Zabini
Comments: 126
Kudos: 354





	1. A strange visit.

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: this is my first fanfiction, I have no idea what i'm doing. Also, english is like my 3rd language or something so be nice pls

The snow had been falling for the past week and the cars on the street had disappeared under countless layers of white dust. Not a soul was usually to be seen outside at this hour, yet she kept looking through the window, waiting for something to happen, someone to arrive.

It had been a year since the war had ended. After spending pretty much all of her childhood fighting for the noble cause and most of all survival, Hermione Granger was now free but also lost. While some went back to Hogwarts to finish their educations, others went onto other adventures, focusing on their future. She, on the other hand, had decided to take some sort of “gap year”, to try to find her real self in the midst of all the legends and titles she had amassed over the years; “Golden Girl”, “The Brightest Witch of Her Age” and even “Mudblood”. So, as soon as the war had ended, she had packed her bags, broken up with Ronald Weasley, hugged Harry Potter goodbye and had started her own kind of adventure: hopping from one country to the other, writing her story, studying at her own pace for her NEWTs while learning to be on her own, to be just Hermione Granger, muggle-born.

She had arrived in Praha a few weeks ago, had found a small apartment near the old town square and had spent the first weeks walking around the cobbled streets, immersing herself in the culture, eating her weight in palacinky and trdelnik even though she knew the latter was not really a Czech food. The rest of her day was usually spent in small cafés, studying her NEWTs notes and writing away her memories and feelings in thick leather notebooks.

Spending days reading, learning and discovering was easy for Hermione. If the war had left something intact, it was surely her curiosity and thirst for knowledge. What was difficult in this “new way of living” was the nights spent alone, in beds that weren’t hers, crying for help while she fought battles already won. Casting silencing spells on all the walls of her rooms had become some sort of a reflex, not wanting to repeat the “Dublin episode”, where she had been evicted from a bed & breakfast because she had kept all the other tenants awake with her screams all night long.

Even though she knew that, thanks to those spells, nobody would hear her, Hermione had begun to fight against sleep, scared of the nightmares that would await her. She also had transfigurated an armchair to look and feel exactly like the one she used to love at Hogwarts and would reduce it to a portable size and take it with her, wherever she went. She usually would put it in front of a window and spend her nights sitting there, a book in one hand, a cup of tea in the other. Sitting on that chair weirdly helped with loneliness, although Hermione still kept contact through owls with pretty much all of her school and Order friends. Sometimes, she dreamed that someone she knew would come to get her up from that chair, that an old acquaintance would find her in her travels and show her a new life direction. However, she also had threatened every single one of them to not follow her anywhere or she would stop sending letters and letting them know where she was.

  
It was another of those nights, dark, cold and lonely and Hermione Granger could be found in her armchair in front of the window, reading the latest version of “Hogwarts: A History”. Praha was strangely very quiet at this hour of the night. The snow had already covered the footsteps of the thousands of people who had been to the old town square that day and the neighborhood looked abandoned. Staring outside at the sky, Hermione saw a white owl flying around and wondered if it was simply an ordinary owl or if there were wizards living down the street from her. She opened the window, letting the sharp cold air of winter hit her face while she bent over to take a better look at where the owl was going.

“Is it lost ? Why does it keep going back and forth ?” she mumbled to herself while the owl kept flying from one end of the street to the other. As soon as she said that, the owl suddenly took a left turn and flew towards her, as if it had recognized her voice, and perched itself on the window sill. Hermione and the owl were now almost nose to beak. Any other owl would have freaked her out, but this one strangely looked like Hedwig. “You look so much like her” she whispered while gently caressing the owl’s chin. “I know you’re not her so who are you ? Who sent..”

**BAMM. BAMM. BAMM.**

“Bloody hell, What the..”  
Startled, she jumped from the armchair to her bedside table to grab her wand before heading towards her apartment door, still vibrating from the knocks on the other side. She knew the war was over, she knew her friends would not have come, especially at this hour of the night. Not knowing what awaited her on the other side, she took a deep breath, tightened her grasp around her wand and brusquely opened the door.

“I’m telling you this is not the right place!  
\- Damnit, Arya has us goi….  
\- Oh Hello, Granger.”

Before her eyes stood Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson and Blaize Zabini.  
For a few seconds, the three of them froze on the spot while she stared, stunned, at each of their faces. Suddenly, she realized who they were and jumped backwards while pointing her wand at all of them and yelling:

“What the hell ? Why the fuck ar…  
\- She swears almost as much as you, Pans’.  
\- Explain what the three of you are doing here before I petri..  
\- Granger, we need your help.”

Theodore Nott had taken a step towards her, both of his hands in the air, putting his chest against the tip of Hermione’s wand, with an expression on his face that showed that he was ready to die for her help. Taken aback by his gesture, she lowered her wand, stared into his eyes and asked: “Why?”

“ Draco is missing and we believe you are the only person who can help us.”


	2. The flying cushions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for those who read the first chapter and still want a second..it's a miracle haha

“Malfoy? So what?”

Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy had never been more than sworn enemies, from the first day of school to the last time she saw him, in court. While the image of three begging Slytherins-slash-purebloods-slash-potentialbabydeatheaters on her doorstep was intriguing enough, the mistrust she had towards them and the fear that it could possibly be some kind of trap kept her on her toes, still holding her wand at such an angle that, if needed, she could take the three of them at once.

“What makes you think that I care ?

\- You testified for him.

\- I wasn’t the only one! Why are you on MY doorstep? And HOW did you know I was here ?

\- We asked aro...

\- Draco told us that, in case he did not contact any one of us for more than 3 months, to come to you for help.

\- It’s been 6 months, Granger..

\- Me ? for help ? Why the f.. oh for Merlin’s sake, just come in.”

The last words came out of her mouth before she even had the time to think them through. At the same time, she knew that they couldn’t keep on talking in the corridor, at three in the morning, or her neighbors would get suspicious. Hermione gestured towards the inside of her apartment and, after a few seconds of hesitation, the three of them got in. “Well, don’t stand there like that. Sit down, i’ll get something for us to drink.” She told them before going towards the alcohol cabinet in the kitchen. “This is going to be fuuuun..” she muttered to herself while hesitating between a bottle of Gin and a bottle of Firewhiskey before taking both and closing the door. None of the three visitors had said a single word and were sitting too straight for her liking. Hermione put both of the bottles and a glass each on the coffee table before turning her armchair with a flick of her wand towards Nott, Parkinson and Zabini.

“Start from the beginning. And if there is one single lie, or if it is all some trick or plan, know that this apartment is rigged with protective spells, including one directly linked to the Order of the Phoenix headquarters.”

She was lying, of course. Rigging her apartment with such spells, especially ones linked to the Order or the ministry, would mean that everyone would know where she was, every time she moved. However, Hermione did not know if it was thanks to the mention of the Order or to the cold and low voice she had used to say that sentence, but her visitors sat even straighter than usual.

“Listen we know you and Drago were not the best of friends..” started Blaise, pouring himself some whiskey. Pansy snorted and rolled her eyes so far up that Hermione thought for a second she was having a seizure.

“But we also heard that he got out of Azkaban thanks to you and Potter.

\- I did it because Harry asked me to. Also, I wasn’t going to let an innocent kid rot in jail even if he was the biggest twat I knew. But I guess all of this…” she gestured to them sitting on her couch “has nothing with us testifying for him.

\- Did you hear what happened to his mother while he was in Azkaban?”

Hermione remembered that, although Harry had also wanted to testify for Narcissa Malfoy, She had already been pardoned for her deeds due to what the Daily Prophet had said were “health reasons”. No further details were given and she had never heard about that woman afterwards. She shook her head and Blaise, breathing deeply, took his glass and walked towards the kitchen window. “I know you don’t like us and the feeling is mutual, Granger. I also know that your thoughts towards us pure-bloods have been heavily influenced by the Malfoy Family. But you need to understand this; we, ourselves know how shitty our childhoods were and what a bunch of bollocks were the ideals our parents fought for. My mother, bless her, fucked pretty much every single and married death eater you know. Nott, here, never wanted anything to do with his father and the feeling was mutual. Our dear Pansy, as you know, was so brainwashed that if her parents told her the earth was flat, she would have believed it.” A cushion flew past Hermione’s face and landed on Blaise.

“We, therefore, had the shittiest of the shittiest families, to the point that we would often joke about how nice it would have been to be born a Weasel, red hair, not an ounce of money or dignity.

\- You little shite, don’t you dare talking about the Weasleys like that.” Hermione suddenly stood out and pointed her wand at Blaise. He held his hands in the air and winked at her. She sat back down, still frowning and pointing the wand towards him while he turned back towards the window, leaning on the sink and kept talking. “The only person who gave a flying fuck about our well-being was Narcissa Malfoy. The only reason we are all friends with the wanker that is Draco is because she kind of raised us together. They, minus Lucius, offered us a shelter from all this shit. Of course, all of this stopped for a while during the war as the Malfoy Manor had become some sort of Death-Eater convention center but we still asked Draco for news about his mother and then when we went on the run besides miss Pansy-cakes, we still heard rumors. From what we know, Lord Voldy had decided that the best ways to punish Lucius for being the insufferable little wanker he is was to mark his son like a pig for slaughter and to use Narcissa as a punching bag and well...other things. The funny thing is, Granger, when you testified for Draco, you said that he was surely doing it to protect his mother but you didn’t know how close to the truth you were. From then on, every order from you-know-who to Draco was weighed down with the possibility of Narcissa dying or, even worse, suffering from the hands of the Lord himself, in case Draco did not accomplish his tasks.”

Hermione shivered and held her legs against her chest, staring at the floor. She knew the Malfoy family had suffered but she could not lie and say that she felt sorry for them. However, the thought of Narcissa Malfoy, the tall, beautiful, haunting woman that she was, being used like that repulsed her. Theodore Nott had not opened once his mouth nor had touched the alcohol in front of him. Pansy simply kept staring at the wall in front of her while sipping her gin, sitting on the tip of the sofa as if it was too disgusting for her clothes to touch it.

“Did..Did something happened to her? is She..?

\- Dead. Yup. She is well and truly dead.” suddenly replied Pansy. “But she did not die a quick death. After Lucius was sentenced to death, she started slowly to faint, throw up everything she ate then her sight was gone and then spent the last few weeks of her life in bed. Nobody, not even the best healers on earth, knows what happened to her..We don’t know if whatever was done in that forsaken place is the reason or if it’s something else.”

Hermione still didn’t understand why they were here, at 3 in the morning, telling her all of this. She felt sorry for Narcissa Malfoy who, in the end, had saved Harry. Hermione looked up at Pansy who was silently crying while Theodore kept patting awkwardly her hand. “I am sorry she ended that way. I believe I still have my brother and the world that I love thanks to what she did that day but what does it have to do with Malfoy’s disappearance ? Did he run away after her death ? It mustn’t have been easy for him, I guess..” Suddenly, a dry and cold laughter came out of Pansy’s lips. “Oh he didn’t run away after her death. He did before, the bastard, the fucki…

\- Pans.

\- What?

\- You’re not helping our case.” responded Blaise. “He did leave her and all of us but not because he didn’t want to see her die, as many think.” he said, looking back at Pansy once again. “We believe that, in the last weeks before he left, Draco became obsessed with the idea that he could find a way to save his mother. He researched for months, went to the five corners of Great Britain to see for himself if there was any chance, any cure for his mother.”

Hermione was suddenly much more intrigued by the story but at the same time reluctant to hear the answer as she knew that even if he did find something, that it had been too late. She, herself, had been in that situation, right after the war. She tried, with the help of the Order and the Ministry, to find a way to restore the memories she herself had obliviated from her parents’ minds but nothing had worked. She had given up and found solace in the fact that she knew they were alive, in good health and happy, even though it meant she would never get them back.

“Did he find something? I guess he didn’t, right..or else..

\- That’s the thing. He found an old manuscript in an irish church, talking about a secret Veela society of some sorts, that were much more evolved in everything from magic to what you muggles call ‘sciences’ than even us pure-blood wizards.

\- oh wow you wank..

\- Zabini, you humongous dick. Granger won’t help us if you keep bringing up your pureblood bullshit.” Hermione was almost certain it was the first time Theodore Nott had opened his mouth after getting inside the apartment. Blaise Zabini, once again, held his hands up in sign of surrendering and winked at Hermione who replied with a fierce and piercing look.

“My bad, old habits die hard, I guess..

\- What did that manuscript say ?

\- We all took a look at it because we wanted to help, you know. But it was just a bunch of shit and neither of us really believe that this was anything else but a tale.

\- But he believed in it, didn’t he ?

\- He did. Nobody we’d asked knew about this Veela society and we had no idea where to start searching for. But he didn’t give up, packed a bag, told us he’d owl every few weeks and asked us to keep an eye on his mother. Weeks went by, she was getting worse and he was nowhere to be seen, besides a single-sentence letter every now and then until..

\- Until what?” Hermione was almost forgetting who they were talking about and was so engrossed in the story and she was almost standing up on the armchair.

“We got one last letter, six months ago.” Theodore opened his jacket and took a bit of parchment from the inside pocket. He got up and walked towards Hermione. She took the letter:

“ _Pans, Theo, Blaise,_

_I have found them. I can’t disclose their location or they won’t help me. Because they will! they will help me!_

_I’ll have to ask you for more time, though. I leave my mother in your care, once more. Tell her that all I am doing is for her._

_With love, D.L.M._

_ps: If I don’t owl back in three months, find Granger. That witch will know how to find me.”_

Although they had never been friends, Hermione knew very well Draco Malfoy’s handwriting. She, herself, had gotten a letter from him, right after he had gotten out of Azkaban, and had stared at it for a long time. She remember she had been really surprised by the beautiful, neat and precise handwriting he possessed. However, this time, even though she still recognized his Ls and Is, the handwriting was rushed and the parchment had been roughly handled. She stared for a while, sliding her fingers on each letter of her name, almost mesmerized.

“Arya usually brought letters and flew back to him with or without a response but, that day, she refused to leave as if she had been ordered to stay with us. She’s been following us since.

\- But why me ? He never even considered me as a real witch back at school..” she breathed, her eyes wide open, going from Blaise to Theo to Pansy.

“ To be honest, we don’t really know either. It’s not like we are all that dumb...

\- Well, Pans is..” Another cushion flew.

“Listen Granger, I don’t know what kind of soul searching you’re doing right now, far away from your kingdom and your fans but I fear you’ll have to stop and help us. We have spent the last three months moving every stone on this planet, spending shit tons of money to find him and nada. Niente.

\- If he believes you can find him, so do we.

\- This is all really refreshing to have a bunch of purebloods ‘believing’ in me” she air-quoted. “but why would you believe I’d move my ass from this chair to help you find someone who has made my life a living hell at school. I already helped him more than I should have..” falling back onto her chair, crossing her arms on her chest. Pansy Parkinson suddenly jumped out of the couch, her arms stretched in front of her, to grab Hermione by the neck:“ You bitch, you’re so high on your pedestal that you wouldn’t even help an innocent man, even though you’re his last chance??? He doesn’t even know his mother his dead ! YOU CUNT, YOU FUCKING CUNT”.

Weirdly enough, Hermione had seen her coming but did not move at all, nor pointed her wand at her until it was too late. Theodore got up quickly and launched himself at Pansy. “Pansy! Stop! Leave her!”. He grabbed her by the waist and brought her back to the couch.

Pansy kept muttering insults towards Hermione, tears drowning her face until she heard the other witch say:

“That book you were talking about.. I’ll need that book.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flying cushions, dead mothers, desperate friends and an intrigued Granger. It smells like the beginning of a great story, doesn't it?


	3. From London to Coimbra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long.. I am writing the story as I post and didn't really know I wanted this to go. Hope you like it !

The book was small, enough to fit in a pocket. Entitled _“Peuples Magiques des Montagnes”_ (“Magic… People? of the mountain?” Hermione managed to translate), it was written by a french wizard named Jean de Mal Foi in the 1900s. As it seemed to be a first edition, Hermione carefully opened the book and prepared herself for long hours of french to english translation. To her surprise, many pages had handwritten notes in the margin: “Is that his..

\- Handwriting? yup. The Veela chapters are full of single-worded notes that do not make any sense.

\- To you.” she replied, looking at the first page of the book. Below the name of the author was scribbled ‘Family?’. “Of course ! Mal Foi! Malfoy! This was written by one of Malfoy’s ancestors, wasn’t it ?” she looked at her three new companions who all nodded. Turning the page to the first chapter, Hermione read the title _“La société des Veelas”_ and silently thanked Merlin that she had never given up on learning french, even after going to Hogwarts. The first chapter seemed to be a basic overview of the first origins of the Veelas and the most important historical events of such society. She skipped through the first pages as none had notes until the fifth one where a passage about a Portuguese historian, Matéus de Oliveira, who had spent his life researching and studying the Veelas, caught her eye. The last sentence of the paragraph was “From de Oliveira was born a lineage of brilliant researchers and historians, just as passionate by the Veela History as their ancestor was.” and had “Portus Cale” written on the side.

“Have you tried going to Portugal?

\- Yup, we went to Porto but nothing. Nobody from the Portuguese wizarding society knew the whereabouts of the de Oliveira family.

\- I still believe we should begin our search there. I’ll need to go back to London first.

\- London? why?

\- You might believe that the few hours we’ve just spent together have made us best friends but I refuse to embark on a search across the world without talking to my family.

\- Family ?” snorted Pansy. “I thought you lobotomized your muggles and they didn’t remember you..

\- Harry Potter.” blurted Theodore. Hermione nodded and turned back to Pansy, her hands on her hips: “It’s either that or you’re on your own.” Blaise raised a hand in front of Pansy’s face and said “I’ll arrange a portkey right away. You might want to use Arya to send him a message informing him that you won’t be alone so he doesn’t kill us on the spot.”

It was around six in the morning when Blaise Zabini knocked again on Hermione Granger’s door. Pansy had fallen asleep on the sofa while Theodore was staring at the streets from the kitchen window. “Sorry, finding a portkey in Praha before nine was more difficult than I thought. Granger, have you packed your bags? We leave in thirty minutes.” Nodding, the young witch went to her room and closed the door behind her. Sliding against the door, she sat on the floor and hugged her knees against her chest. “What the hell am i doing with them? all of this for him..” she muttered. She was suddenly supposed to leave everything behind, the year of travels she had planned, her studies, her book project to go search for the biggest bully she ever had. She hoped that, hearing about the situation, her best friend would get so mad that he would prevent her from going. “As if he had ever stopped you from doing anything..” she chuckled while getting up and opening the first drawer. She knew that she was way too invested by now to not even give it a try. After all, she could spare them a few days and could leave any time she’d want to. “It’s not like Malfoy would have done the same for me, if I went missing..”

Twenty-nine minutes later, the four wizards gathered around a jewelry box in silence. As soon as it started to glow, all of them grabbed a corner of the box. Hermione closed her eyes, bracing herself for the dizziness that was to come.

One hour later, they were still sitting in Harry Potter’s office and had been joined by the minister of magic himself.

“Listen, I want to make sure that you all know that we won’t give up on Mr. Malfoy, no matter his past. In fact, why didn’t you come first to me, all those months ago?

\- With all due respect, Minister, you would have told us to fuck off. In fact (Pansy air-quoted), I believe that, without the Holy Savior and his second-in-command taking interest in all of this, you would have not given a single fuck about the situation.” she replied, without blinking.

“Pansy!! Please, excuse my lady friend, her…

\- No, she’s right. I would have probably told you to wait. Most of the sons and daughters of Death Eaters have left the country to Merlin knows where so I would have probably thought that the young Malfoy would have done the same. And for that, I am sorry.” replied Kingsley Shacklebolt while bowing to Pansy. “What matters now is that a young wizard has gone missing on a quest that could possibly endanger his life and also the relationship between wizards and veelas. If you need anything, let me know.

\- We only need Granger.

\- ..and possibly an emergency portkey each, in case.

\- Goldstein! I need four emergency portkeys, right away!!” Shacklebolt yelled, his head out of the door before closing it again.

“I wish I could come with you.” Harry said, taking Hermione’s hand into his. “I haven’t seen you in months and you’ll be gone again for Merlin knows how long..

\- I know..but remember when you felt like you had to testify for him ?” He nodded. “I feel the same. The idea that this twat told his friends to ask for my help is mindblowing.” Both laughed and hugged each other. Hermione kissed Harry on the cheek and said “Kiss Ginny for me, will you ?

\- You’re not going to see Ron?

\- You know it’s a bad idea..”

After two days in Porto, Hermione realized that this task would be more difficult than imagined. Nobody in the Portuguese wizarding community had heard from the de Oliveira family in years. The last known de Oliveira witch, Marlene de Oliveira, had worked at Beauxbatons but had suddenly left her job in the 1940s and disappeared. The foursome was sitting in silence in a small bar. Hermione kept twirling her cup and look at the whiskey swirl inside. “It’s obvious he found someone or something here, there’s no other indication on where to go in the book.” Her companions kept on listening. “We asked all of the Portuguese wizarding community..We’ve contacted Beauxbatons but nothing..

\- It’s as if the whole entire de Oliveira family had disappeared from the Wizarding world..” groaned Zabini.

“disappeared from the Wizardi...oh we’re idiots..” suddenly said Hermione while laughing. She stood up from her bar stool, still laughing, and asked the barman “Do you have a phone book?”. Minutes later, the barman came back with a few phone books and Hermione took them to a bigger table, followed by her very lost companions. “Granger, what is a pone book?

\- Phone book.

\- Yeah that. Why do we need that?” Hermione realized that she must have seemed mad, laughing and not explaining anything. “I know why Malfoy wanted me here with you. You, good pure-blood wizards that you are, lack one thing; knowledge about the muggle world. In fact, you did not even think that maybe, in the 1940s, the Second World War was pretty much destroying France which would explain why Marlene de Oliveira felt compelled to come back to her country. Also, the only reason a wizarding family would disappear from the wizarding community is either death, marrying a muggle or simply..

\- Squibs.” suddenly said Nott, his eyes wide open. “But the book said that de Oliveira had many descendants who were researchers and historians..

\- and Muggles also have researchers and historians! And some of them research legends or myths!”

One hour later, Pansy Parkinson groaned “Who knew de Oliveira was such a popular surname?”. The phone books the barman had lent them were full of pages with people called de Oliveira.

“Granger, is there another muggly way to check someone’s lineage? Marlene de Oliveira might have had a daughter which would have changed the whole surname.

\- What time is it ?

\- four in the afternoon.

\- Well, it’s time to go to church!

\- Ch..What?”

As they walked through the narrow streets of Porto, Hermione explained to the others that the best way to check one’s family history in predominantly catholic countries such as Portugal was to go and ask the churches as they were the ones who kept records of weddings, births and deaths.

After visiting the fourth church, Zabini started to complain “How many churches are we going to visit, Granger? I am the least holiest man you’ll ever meet..

\- Just one more and we’ll give up..”

“De Oliveira Manuel.. De Oliveira Marta.. De Oliveira..DE OLIVEIRA MARLENE! I found her!” yelled Parkinson after a few hours. The young wizards all congregated around her and started reading. _“Marlene De Oliveira (1925-1992), esposa de Joaquim Martins, mãe de Andreia de Oliveira Martins (1947-1994).”_

“She married a muggle and had a daughter named Andreia de Oliveira Martins that died quite young.

\- How do you speak Portuguese?

\- Mother likes Brazilian men.” shrugged Zabini.

More research revealed that Andreia de Oliveira Martins had had a son, Thomas Martins, a history professor at the Universidade de Coimbra who was still alive. Apparating from Porto to Coimbra was quick, searching for a single professor in such a big university was not. After asking around, they finally found themselves in front of Thomas Martins’ office. They knocked once, twice..a dark-skinned man in his late thirties appeared at the door.

“Sim?

\- Professor Thomas Martins ?

\- Hello, how may I help y… Miss Granger?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, well, well..How does he know her name? *dun dun dun*  
> By the way, fun fact: the university mentioned in this chapter heavily influenced JK Rowling for Hogwarts and especially the uniforms..google it! ^^
> 
> ps: One of you nice readers just made me realize that my whole timeline regarding the characters was wrong.(i'm really that bad at math duh...) so I changed things!! Sorry... T_T


	4. The origami.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! if you are still reading whatever this is, I'm thankful and hope to not disappoint. On the last chapter, one of you pointed out that I massively fucked up with the dates concerning the De Oliveira family so I went back and changed a few things. It doesn't change a lot for our protagonists and the story but if you want all the details right, you might want to go and re-read the last chapter before reading this one. I'll shut up now!^^

“Y..Yes? Well come in, come in!” said the professor. “Please do sit down, I’ll have my assistant get us something to drink from the cafeteria.” he said before going through a smaller door on the right side of the room.

The four wizards sat in silence until Parkinson suddenly looked at Hermione and asked “Is it always like that?

\- like what?

\- Does every single person on this earth know who you are ?

\- Hmm.. in England, I guess...but not anywhere else.. I don’t know how he knows me…”she replied, frowning.

Her frown was joined by Nott who added “especially since he’s supposed to be a muggle..”. As soon as he said that, the man had appeared from behind them and chuckled : “well yes, I am a “muggle” (he air-quoted) but also the son of a squib and the grandson of a witch. and I have this.” He opened a book that was on the side of his armchair and pulled out a torn page of a newspaper. When he presented it to Hermione, she was surprised to see herself, nodding awkwardly next to Harry and Ron. This picture seemed to have been from one of the many pieces the Daily Prophet had written on the Golden Trio after the war.

“Professor, how did you get this?

\- He gave it to me, of course.” Thomas Martins replied before getting up of his chair and walking towards a huge bookshelf. There, he stood for a few minutes, browsing through the documents and books before taking some sort of thick binder. “I was hoping you wouldn’t come, to be honest.. If you are here, it means that Draco is either missing or that he failed or worse..”

Hermione put the binder on her lap and opened it with caution while Nott stood behind her, Parkinson and Zabini on each side. The binder was full of copies of texts regarding Veelas in several languages, notes in Draco’s writing and a picture of his mother. “Professor, how did you get this? was Malfoy really here ?

\- He came six months ago and spent about a month in the exact spot you are sitting, Miss Granger. I teach Muggle History but I also work on my legacy which, since you’re here then you might already know, is research on the Veelas. I came back from class one day and he was standing in front of my door. I usually do not mix my “muggle job” and my “hobbies” so I refused to help him at first but he came the next day, and the next until I let him in. I shared my research with him and he shared his with me.

\- When did he leave? Do you know where he went?” asked Zabini.

“ Five months ago. While I appreciated having someone with whom to discuss my research and wished he had taken on my offer to be my assistant, He was on a quest and left to see one of my colleagues who’s kind of a specialist.

\- Who was it? where did he go ??” shaking from her head to her toes, Parkinson seemed like she was going to jump at the man’s throat before being stopped by Nott who was holding her by the shoulders. “ A wizard called Charles Browne, in Macao. I haven’t heard of both of them in months but I doubt Draco is still there. You might want to try and go see Charles, though. Just like this binder, Draco might have left something behind..”

Hermione had a hard time imagining Malfoy in such a foreign place such as Macao. She also felt weirdly anxious at the idea of going on the other side of the world, with the hopes of finding something about the whereabouts of a wizard that, until recently, she had hoped to never see again. _“why am i still here?”_ she thought to herself. _“can’t they go alone now? I’m sure that Mr.Browne will know where he is..”_ However, as strange as it might be, Hermione had arrived to the conclusion that she did not want to give up on Draco Malfoy. More than that, she now wanted him to be safe. The idea of that blond twat, running around the world to find a way to save his mother, not knowing that she had already passed away, was heartbreaking to her.

“Professor, before we go, if you don’t mind..Could you tell us if you believe that such a secret society, with such powers, do really exist?” Hermione asked, a hand on the doorknob. She was the last one leaving the office as Parkinson, Nott and Zabini were already outside, talking about the logistics regarding to them traveling to Macao. Taking off his glasses to clean them with his shirt, Thomas Martins looked at Hermione with sad but sympathetic eyes. “Listen, I should not be saying this as it goes against the whole legacy thing but I believe that, if such society was to exist, my magical ancestors would have already found it by now. I still keep hope that they are out there, somewhere right under our noses, maybe.. but I also hope that you find Draco quickly. His mother passed away, didn’t she? That’s why you are here, after all these months..

\- Yes.. Thank you, Professor.” she replied, her eyes filling up with tears of disappointment. Halfway through closing the door, Hermione heard the man muttering “Meu Deus, He’ll need you, then..”

Sitting at a table in a small restaurant, the four young wizards were discussing their next step while eating Carne de porco à Alentejana while listening to a woman sing Fado on a small stage. “Macao seems so foreign.. I feel like we’re going to space..” said Parkinson while refilling her glass of white wine. Hermione nodded silently while playing with her fork and the clams on her plate. In front of her was sitting Theodore Nott who had been staring at her for the past few minutes. Softly knocking on the table in front of her to make her look at him, he whispered: “Granger, are you still in? or do you want to go home?”. She wasn’t expecting this question and if she were, she would have expected it to be yelled at her, by Parkinson’s mouth and not asked gently, with worried eyes, by an otherwise very quiet Nott. “Well, I..I wasn’t expecting to have to go that far but yes, i’m still in.” Zabini had rented two rooms in a small hotel near the ministry, right by the sea. “We don’t know how long we’ll be on the road so let’s not spend all of our money before we find him, shall we ? Granger, Parkinson, please, don’t kill each other tonight.” before leaving them in front of their room.

Until then, they had either stayed all in one big suite and talked all night until falling asleep on armchairs or each had their own room. Tonight would be the first night Hermione would share a room with Pansy Parkinson, the girl who had tried to give Harry to Voldemort. This last thought made Hermione think that keeping her wand under her pillow would not be such a bad idea. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Parkinson took the key from Hermione’s hand and opened the door. The room was rather small with a bathroom on the right, a small closet and two single beds on the opposite wall. They both stood in the middle of the room until Parkinson asked, a hand on her hip, “Which bed do you want?”. Surprised, Hermione took a few seconds to answer before pointing hesitantly to the bed near the window. “That one? if you don’t mind..

\- Nope. I was going to choose the other one anyways.” before throwing her bag on the bed. Hermione then heard her mutter “Don’t like windows..” on her way to the bathroom.

A few hours later, Hermione was staring at the sea through the window, while laying on her side. Both witches were not keen on small talk so they had showered and had gone to bed right after. _“I should probably update Harry on what’s going on.. I’ll ask to borrow Arya tomorrow.. should I write to Ron? hmm.. maybe not..”_ she thought when, suddenly, she heard Parkinson sob. She turned towards her bed and saw that the witch was having a nightmare. Not knowing what to do, Hermione sat on her bed and kept looking at her. Pansy Parkinson was now tossing in her bed and crying in a small voice “not the window, please! not the windo..” before letting such a deafening scream that Hermione bounced out of bed and grabbed the girl by the shoulders:

“Wake up! Parkinson! Wake up!” she yelled but the witch kept fighting her and saying incoherent things about windows. “Pansy!! it’s me, Hermione!” she said one last time. Pansy opened her eyes, letting tears roll, and stared at the other witch with a lost look in her eyes. “Hermio..Granger? what happen..Oh..” she said as soon as she felt the tears rolling down her cheeks with the tips of her fingers. Hermione sat on Pansy’s bed while the other girl got up and also sat down.

“Ugh..I’m hmm..did i wake you?

\- No. I wasn’t sleeping. I can’t sleep.

\- I figured that..I think I caught you once asleep in total, in the time we’ve been together.

\- Well.. the war..

\- the war..windows..”

The sun was almost up when both witches finally fell asleep, both in Pansy’s bed. On the floor was a bottle of Firewhiskey, half-emptied. Hermione had told Pansy about the dreams, the “Dublin Episode”, why she had left London while Pansy told her why she didn’t like windows. They had talked all night about Hogwarts, the war, Draco Malfoy, mental health, the Dark Lord and Draco Malfoy again until they both fell asleep, shoulder to shoulder.

“Ladies, I’m very disappointed. There’s enough space for me too. Right in the middle would have been alright.” Hermione opened her eyes to see Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott standing in front of the bed, one with an amused expression on his face, the other wearing the same blank expression he had had the past few days.

Later in the morning, the wizards found themselves in an office at the Portuguese ministry of magic, staring at a huge pink hat. This was their first portkey to Shanghai where they would take another to Macao the following day. Hermione held tight against her chest the binder, hoping she wouldn’t lose any page in the process. While the others would go on and ask around to know if anyone knew Charles Browne at the Shanghai branch of the Chinese ministry of Magic, Hermione already had planned on staying in the hotel and go through all the pages in the binder. She hoped she would find something that would lead her to him. She now knew that, although the possibility of such society existing was minuscule, Draco Malfoy had gone on a quest that could cost him his sanity, if not his life. _“I would have done the same if I had heard of a way to restore my parent’s memories..”_ she thought to herself before touching the glowing pink hat.

A few hours later, she found herself on the floor of the room they were all sharing in a motel in Shanghai. Due to the time difference, they had lost a day in the span of a few minutes. The bright red and gold lights of the shop signs were shining on all the documents she had put on the floor. Many of those pages were copies of books that pretty much said the same thing about Veelas; beautiful women that could charm men and transform into harpy-like creatures when angry. That was it. Other than sources saying that they originated from Bulgaria and nowadays lived, married and procreated mostly with wizards, nothing about a secret society was said on those pages. Hermione knew that the Veelas didn’t need wands to perform magic but not one single book she had read said that their magical abilities were stronger than the wizards nor that they combined wizard magic and muggle science. She kept turning pages, categorizing them in different groups so it would be easier for her or her companions to read them again, hoping for something to catch her eye. And something did.

A page of what seemed to have been a muggle notebook shone in between all of the wizard parchments. The paper was folded like an origami but had been squashed by the weight of the other pages of the binder. With a touch of her wand, the origami jumped of the floor and regained its form which was some kind of five-pointing star before flying towards her and opening flatly on her knees. She recognized his handwriting. and her name.

_“ Granger,_

_I don’t know why I am writing to you. I hope you will never have to read whatever this is._

_Because if you do, it probably means something happened to me. It also means that I wouldn’t count on anyone else but you to find me._

_I keep hearing rumors and legends of such society but nothing in books, no one is able or willing to give me some proof. This is so frustrating._

_I am leaving for Macao tomorrow, I hope I will find what I’m looking for. I have faith I will be home for Christmas._

_If I do, I will come to find you._

_In your hands,_

_D.M”_

Her lips slightly trembling, she kept reading the last line again and again. “why would you come and find me?” she murmured just as the door of the room opened.

“Get ready, Granger. We’re leaving now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's quite a long chapter, isn't it? I think that's why it took me so long to write it..Thank you for the kudos and bookmarks! I'd love to hear more about what you think about the story so far so leave me a comment! :)


	5. The Window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: Rape.  
> Not really graphic but could be triggering.

“My contact at the ministry could only get us invited to a party Charles Browne is having at the Casino Grand Lisboa. The rest is up to us.” explained Zabini while they were packing. “Macau is a non-apparition, non-floo territory so we’ll have to go there the muggle way.

\- Poor muggle or rich muggle way?” asked Hermione. Blaise Zabini looked up at her and smirked. “Have I ever given you a reason to not trust me, Granger? 

\- I don’t know you.” replied coldly Hermione. 

What Zabini had called “the muggle way” was flying in a private jet only for the four of them that said contact at the Chinese Ministry had provided for them. During the two hours flight, Zabini, Nott and Pansy told Hermione everything they had learned at the ministry: 

“From what we’ve heard, that Charles Brown is one of the richest, if not the richest man of Macau, including wizards AND muggles. 

\- It’s weird that we’ve never heard about him in our circles. Someone with that much money cannot easily fly under the radar.

\- One of the aurors I talked to earlier told me that Browne is considered as a “special case” in the Chinese auror department.

\- in what sense?

\- In the sense that, no matter the rumors of him being heavily involved with muggle drug cartels and him using magic to influence half of the high society of Macau and Hong Kong, the aurors have to close their eyes. 

\- This probably means that that Browne guy’s power goes way beyond Macau and Hong Kong.” concluded Nott, a frown forming on his face. 

“I asked around the assistants and all of them knew of him, saying that he throws the best parties of Asia, that he is very charming, eccentric, blah blah blah...” drawled Pansy while sipping slowly Moet Imperial. “As soon as we jump out of the plane, we have to buy outfits. I am not going to a Charles Browne party dressed like that.” 

After a quick shop in another casino, the four companions were dressed for the party. Nott had opted for a simple but elegant black muggle suit, Zabini a bright yellow suit who complimented his dark skin and Pansy was beautiful in a dark green dress. Hermione, who had no interest whatsoever in fashion, had let Pansy chose for her. She was now wearing a white jumpsuit with open sleeves that looked like an actual cape and was coerced into wearing a dark red lipstick and a bit of mascara. Hermione actually ended up believing that Pansy Parkinson was a better witch than she was after the slytherin had managed in a few minutes to tame her hair into a perfectly slicked back low bun. The whole outfit had earned Hermione the sight of Pansy congratulating herself out loud for her hard work and innate skills in beauty and fashion, applauses and wiggling eyebrows from Zabini and a coughing fit from Nott who seemed to not be able to look at her in the eyes afterwards. 

Standing awkwardly in front of the golden casino, Hermione asked “How do we do it? Do we mingle with other guests? do we ask around who’s Browne..?

\- My contact told me that Browne has slughornish tendencies to “collect” interesting and famous people at his parties so maybe the simple sound of “Hermione Granger” will open all the doors..

\- Let’s hope you’re right.” for the first time in her wizarding life, Hermione was hoping that people would know her. 

The witch was not used to places like this. The casino was incredibly beautiful, golden and shining. Inside in the lobby were beautiful pieces of art and historical artifacts exposed. She thought to herself that she never had seen such a beautiful place before. However, the lobby was nothing compared to the party room they were led to after showing their invitations. The white and gold room made her think of the hall of mirrors in Versailles but with a modern twist to it. As soon as they entered the room, an employee politely asked in perfect english for their invitations and coats. After seeing their names, the man gestured to another employee, way younger and lower in the hierarchy by the way he responded. The first man gestured to the four young wizards and said “Please give these distinguished guests the best table available and all the services it comes with.

\- Right away, sir. Please, if you would follow me.” responded the young employee before leading them through the crowd. 

They were led to a comfortable, round booth, right in front of a stage where young men were doing a martial arts performance. “Tonight, I am entirely at your disposition. If you press this bell, I will come right away. Please, don’t hesitate.” added the employee before bowing and going away. 

“hmm what do we do, now?” asked Hermione, after sitting in the booth for a few minutes. “I guess we wait. The man at the door saw your name. I saw him looking at you for a second.” answered Zabini, a twinkle in his eye. “In the meantime, let’s blend in!” he said by holding up his glass of champagne. “Cheers!” 

They were comfortably talking while drinking and nibbling on some food for half an hour when the man that had welcomed them at the beginning came to their table. “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Browne is terribly sorry but cannot meet you today. He hopes you will still enjoy the party and will get in touch with you tomorrow!” he announced before bowing and leaving their table. 

“What? that was such a waste of time..” groaned Hermione “and of money..” she added by looking at herself in the reflection of one of the mirrors on the wall. Zabini was smirking and looking around them when he mouthed “this is a test.” before adding, in a louder and more cheerful voice “What a pity our distinguished host could not meet us today..oh well! Let’s have a bit of a mingle before going home, shall we?” before getting up and presenting a hand to Pansy who seemed to have understood what the hell was going on as she replied in a very high voice “Oh yes dear! let’s dance!” before nodding at Nott in Hermione’s direction. After coughing once in his fist, Nott got up and presented his hand to Hermione: “Well..Shall we?”. Hermione was about to retort that she wasn’t here to dance when Nott’s eyes seemed to point her the employee on their left who seemed to have been staring at them for a while. Everything suddenly clicked in Hermione’s otherwise very smart brain and she took Nott’s hand. 

An hour into dancing with Nott, then with Zabini, then again Nott, then being greeted by wizards and witches who had recognized her, Hermione was ready to give up on this night, on this whole adventure and, more than that, had started to think that, perhaps, Draco Malfoy was not enough for her to have to suffer that way. Her increasingly bad mood could be seen in her face while dancing ( _“again.. so much dancing..”_ ) with Nott who looked at her and smirked before leaning on her until his mouth found her ear “I know this is not your kind of party, Granger, but look more alive or all of this will have been for nothing..”. 

Rolling her eyes dramatically, she nodded and gave him the fakest of smiles which made Nott chuckle. She scanned around the room at the guests, looking for Zabini and Pansy. She quickly found the wizard in the middle of giggling middle-aged women. They locked eyes with each other and Zabini winked at her. Snorting, Hermione then looked for Pansy while twirling with Nott. “I can’t see Pansy..” she whispered in Nott’s ear. The tall, brunette man looked around the room before offering his arm to Hermione and say “let’s look for her.” 

After a few minutes walking around, arm in arm, nodding and smiling at other guests, they saw Pansy laughing with a few wizards and witches who seemed to be their age. Hermione and Nott were about to walk in her direction when an incredibly handsome blond man, not walking straight, suddenly sang “Oooh Pansyy! My love!” on their right. A lingering german accent in an otherwise perfect english, a suit that would cost more than her vault, and the nonchalance in his steps made Hermione look twice at what was for sure a wealthy German pureblood. In the middle of a laugh, Pansy suddenly froze, her eyes wide open, while the young man put an arm around her shoulders. “How have you been, my love? It’s been, what? almost a year? I think so, right? right after your little war!” before offering her the bottle of champagne he had in his hand. Pansy’s face was distorted with surprise, anger and what Hermione thought to be..fear? “Who’s that?” she asked Nott who, again, was standing very close to her. “I have no idea but Pansy doesn’t look happy.” he replied before guiding her through the crowd towards Pansy. 

Livid, Pansy growled “Get the fuck out of my sight, Wagner or I’ll cut you into pieces.” before taking his arm off her shoulders and begin to walk away. “Come oooon! Don’t tell me you’re still mad at our little games in Heidelberg!” he moaned while grabbing her arm. “We both know you had fun, I know I did!” he said before winking at her. Pansy stopped in her steps and slowly turned back to him. From far away, Hermione could see tears forming in her eyes. Wanting to get closer quicker, Hermione took Nott’s hand and started to charge into the crowd. Pansy’s broken voice could be heard saying “Fun? You think I had fun, Wagner? f..fun??”. From the corner of her eye, she saw Zabini also rushing in Pansy’s direction. “If it weren’t for your dear ‘Vater’ and mine, you would be rotting in the filthiest cell of whatever jail you have in your forsaken country!” she cried before getting free of his hold and running out of the room. 

Nott and Hermione found her in a balcony, sitting on the floor in Zabini’s embrace. 

The sobs coming out of her reminded Hermione of the night Pansy had had a nightmare. Gently, she squatted down before putting her hand on Pansy’s shoulder and asking “Windows?..” to which Pansy replied with more tears and multiple nods. 

Hermione suddenly got up and kicked a bottle of champagne that had been left on the floor of the balcony by a guest while yelling “The motherfucking arsehole!”. 

“Windows? What windows?” asked Zabini while Nott was holding Hermione by the arms and shouted “you’re going to stop kicking shit and tell us who that fucker is!” 

In Hermione’s memory, that was the first time she had heard Nott talk louder than the whisper or mumbling he usually did. Her anger instantly frozen and she stared at his big brown eyes. He stared back for a second before shaking his head and letting go Hermione. He sat on the floor right in front of Pansy and Zabini and, while taking Pansy’s hand into his, softly asked “Pans’..what happened in Heidelberg?

\- Pansy...they don’t know?” stuttered Hermione. 

Pansy Parkinson shook her head and muttered “you’re the only one from Hogwarts who knows..

\- Oh..

\- Pansy..

\- Alright, Alright!” she yelled before taking a cigarette out of her purse. “Remember the time following the end of the war when I left to see my cousin in Germany?” 

Both boys nodded. “Well I was staying at the Heidelberg Castle with Nora and she had invited a few society friends to spend the summer with us. Amongst them, Wagner and his dickhead friends.” She stopped to light up her cigarette. “One night, almost everyone but me, Wagner and two of his friends were asleep. The four of us were drinking in one of the highest towers and talking about the war.. For them, it was entertainment, you see? They didn’t care about the dead, they didn’t care about the muggles or the muggleborns!..So they started asking questions and..and I told them..

\- You told them what?

\- How I tried to sell out Potter to the Dark Lord..

\- and what happened?

\- They began to joke about how I would have sold my own family if it meant that I would survive..and then, they started to ask how far I was willing to go for protection and money.. the shitbags were drunk as hell, you see.. and one of them mentioned Dumbledore and how, maybe, the old man had gotten into my head and that’s why I wasn’t able to give Potter to the Vold..the Dark Lord.. and then, one of them remembered that he had fallen from the tower and we were in a tower and…” she started sobbing in Zabini’s arms and muttered “Mione..please..

\- Then they asked her if she wanted to see how it felt to fall from a tower.. But.. not before they raped her against the biggest window of the room.. for hours.. They were handling her with such strength that the window they were against shattered and she fell down the tower. She was saved from death by a house-elf who apparated her to safety…” finished Hermione, now crying too. 

Both of the boys were numb, staring at the ground. Zabini had a single tear rolling down his dark cheek. After a few minutes in silence, Zabini asked “Pans’.. did you tell your parents?” to which Pansy responded with a diabolic laugh before getting up from the floor and leaning on the wall. “Oh yes, i did...even the fucking house-elf told them what he saw! But the Wagner family are a very well respected family, they said! And I might have had a bit too much to drink, they said! The truth is.. Our family was crass now. Our name is linked forever to the failures of the Dark Lord and my parents are being ostracized from the European pureblood society.. and going against a family like the Wagner family would mean our end..” she laughed. 

Hermione Granger was now pissed. Although she had yet to decide on how she felt regarding her three companions and the blooming friendship that was growing between her and Pansy Parkinson, she was boiling with anger. Without even thinking, she took her wand from her purse and strode back inside the room. She looked around and quickly found Wagner cackling with other young wizards. She walked towards him and yelled “How can you stand here and pretend nothing happened? you pile of shit!” 

The corner of the room where they were got suddenly really quiet which seemed to destabilize Wagner for a second before he passed a hand through his hair and asked with an amused tone: “and..you are?

\- Oh dear, don’t you know? It’s Hermione Granger!” giggled a blond witch on his left side. 

“Oh we have a celebrity amongst us, everyone. Please, excuse me for not knowing you. I guess you’re not used to it, aren’t you, love?

\- Don’t you dare call me ‘love’! I’ll cut you into million of slices for what you did to Pansy!” she pointed her wand towards him with the intention of cursing him into oblivion. 

However, as soon as she had held up her wand, a few wizards amongst Wagner’s group had done the same towards her. “You see, miss Granger, you are not amongst your peers here. China still understands that we, purebloods, should not breathe the same air as you. While your victory is still celebrated to this day in Europe, here, we are still mourning what was to be a revolution or, shall we say, History being rewritten. Now..” He coughed dramatically. “If you could get out of my air..I seem to have an allergy to mudbloods..” which resulted in several people around them laughing at his joke. 

Blind with rage, Hermione hexed Wagner who fell and slid across the floor and was met in return with hexes coming from his friends. While fighting them away, she heard Zabini, Nott and Pansy running towards her, screaming her name. Almost blind from the fumes of the hexes, Hermione suddenly felt someone hugging her from behind, suddenly followed by the feeling of apparition. 

She stumbled and fell on sand. Opening her eyes, she realized she was on a beach and saw no casino. Someone had taken her out of the fight. Now really, really pissed off, the young witch grabbed her wand that was laying on the sand and got up quickly to face the person who did that: “What the fuck was that???” 

Theodore Nott, livid, was looking at her like he was debating on whether to yell at her until her ears bled or simply throw her in the water. He suddenly grabs her by her shoulders and yells : “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well..it got dark real fast, didn't it?
> 
> I'm really thankful for your kudos and comments! Tell me what you thought about this chapter !


	6. The Purple Box.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Blood.   
> and mentions of rape (see last chapter).

“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING ?

\- HOW DID YOU APPARATE US? I THOUGHT WE COULDN’T!

\- You can’t apparate from outside of Macau or from Macau to an outside territory but you can apparate inside the islands of Macau! It happens to a lot of islands or in shady cities like Las Vegas or Macau…

\- Oh, I see so towns and countries can choose their own apparition perimeters? is there some kind of legislation? I mean...

\- WHO CARES! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?

\- AND YOU! HOW COULD YOU LEAVE PANSY THERE ? WHY DID YOU TAKE ME OUT ?”

Theodore Nott didn’t answer and just kicked the sand. He seemed to be really angry at her and was talking to himself. Hermione stared at him for what seemed was an eternity, watching him kick sand and throw pebbles in the sea until she could not manage her anger and curiosity any longer. She strode towards him, put her hands on his arms and shook him:

“Nott! NOTT! stop! I need answers!

\- Just because you are the brightest witch of our generation doesn’t mean you need to put yourself in danger! I thought you were over all the superhero shit!

\- Pansy was raped by this asshole! but he walks free! I couldn’t not do anything! How dare you call me on my so-called superhero shit when you did the same by apparating me here ? I can take care of myself, thank you very much!” Hermione was now yelling again and tears were rolling down her face.

She knew attacking Wagner in the middle of a pure-blood party was reckless but she couldn’t just look at him being a free man while her friend ( _“since when Pansy is my friend?_ ”) was suffering. The only regret she had was to not have cursed him with a nice Sectumsempra aimed below his belt buckle. Dragging her out of her own thoughts, she heard Nott groan “if he hurt you, I..”.

When Hermione looked at his face, Nott was avoiding her eyes by staring far behind her. His face was contorted with anger but also what seemed like something similar to fear. Slowly, Hermione’s hands slid down his arms and took Nott’s hands into hers. As soon as she held his hands, Nott shivered. His brown eyes soon filled with tears and he avoided her eyes again. “Theodore, I can take care of myself..” she whispered while squeezing his hands. He chuckled before looking back at her, smiling: “I know but there were too many of them and too little of us.. Don’t worry about Pans’, Blaise apparated her back to the hotel.

\- Why didn’t you take us back there, too? where are we?

\- Hac Sa Beach, I think? I read about it earlier in a newspaper and that was the only place I could think of at that moment..” Hermione realized she was still holding Theodore’s hands and let go of them swiftly. The tall wizard seemed to have come to the same conclusion as he awkwardly turned away from her and passed his hands through his hair.

They both sat in silence for a while, running their hands through the sand and staring at the sea. Hermione could feel the stare of the wizard next to her: “What?

\- I haven’t had the opportunity to properly thank you for helping us find Draco.. and I guess that, now, I have to also thank you for defending Pansy..

\- Hmm..it’s nothing..

\- No, I know it’s not. Both of them were your biggest bullies back at school and still, you’re helping them. I know you probably only know me by name but I know you.. I've watched you for years, being the first in all of our classes, standing up to my idiots of friends.. You are actually one of the reasons why I didn’t join the Dark Lord.

\- Wait what?

\- Well, you can’t believe in what he says when the strongest and smartest witch you know is a muggle-born. So I guess that, as I admired you from afar, my so-called allegiance to the Dark Lord never really came to be..

\- Oh..I see..well, I’m glad..I guess.”

Hermione looked at the young wizard get up and try to clean up the sand off his pants. Theodore Nott was quite handsome, in a tall and slender kind of way. She suddenly remembered an evening, back in fourth year, just after the Yule ball had been announced, where Lavender, Parvati and the other girls of her dorm had discussed for hours who they’d like to go to the Ball with: “I wouldn’t mind going to the ball with a Slytherin..

\- That could make things interesting..

\- Oookay girls, important question: who’s hot in Slytherin?

\- Well Malfoy, of course.

\- Zabini is hot!

\- Don’t forget about Nott! He’s probably the lesser evil in that forsaken house.

\- Oooh yes! He’s handsome and quite kind which is weird for a snake.. Hermione! what do you think about Nott?” She remembered having listened to their conversation in her bed, hiding behind a huge book, half curious, half embarrassed, while the other girls had all congregated on two beds to talk and do their nails. “Nott? I don’t really know him..I guess he is quite okay for a snake, I guess..”

Once again, she was brought back to the present by Theodore Nott, extending a hand, saying “Shall we go back to the hotel? the others might be worried..”

An apparition and an fierce hug from Pansy followed by an awkward silence between the two witches later, the four wizards were all sitting in the living room area of their suite, drinking in silence when a knock on the door was heard. Zabini, silently asking his friends to remain in the living room, stood up and went to the door. A few minutes later, he came back with a dark purple envelope in his hand. Opening it, he read:

_“Mr Zabini, Mr Nott, Ms Granger and Ms Parkinson,_

_I would like to offer my deepest regrets regarding tonight’s incident by inviting you to tea, tomorrow at noon._

_I look forward to properly meeting you._

_Regards,_

_C.Browne.”_

“Well, I guess Granger almost killing half of his guests was the only way to get C.Browne to meet us.. Off to bed, children!”. That night, Hermione dreamt of that evening back in fourth year but this time, Parvati was asking her “So..are you going the Yule Ball with Nott or Malfoy?”.

The next day, Pansy, Theodore, Zabini and Hermione were back at the casino Grande Lisboa. “Please could you tell Mr Browne that Miss Hermione Granger and her friends are here to see him?” asked Zabini to an employee at the front desk. She wondered after yesterday how her name could still have any value in Browne’s or, really, anyone’s eyes. However, being Hermione Granger had still its benefits. The employee talked for a few moments on the phone before almost running from behind the front desk to guide them. The four companions looked at each other for a second before following him. They were guided to two large golden doors with two security men posted in front of it.

Hermione was suddenly feeling very nervous and was about to fall back when she felt a steady hand on her back, gently making her go forward. When she looked to her right, she saw that the hand belonged to Theodore who was standing really close to her while still maintaining enough space between them for this not to be awkward. She stared at him for a few seconds but he kept looking right ahead. The young witch wondered if such familiarity was a product of what he had said yesterday but quickly came to the conclusion that he was merely being a gentlemen as she saw Zabini do the same for Pansy.

The room they were led to reminded Hermione of those Gentlemen’s Clubs she had seen in movies. While the room where the party had been held the previous day was white and gold, sparkly and loud, this room was very masculine, dark and quiet. A few leather couches were turned towards a fireplace and a record player was playing some Shanghainese jazz from the 1920s. A man was standing in front of an open window, smoking a cigar. He looked like he could be in his sixties but the image of a 150 years old Dumbledore came to Hermione’s mind so she did not want to presume his age. The man was wearing a beautiful brown three-piece suit, his hair was slicked back and he had such a particular but still handsome face that Hermione felt like he had come out of one of those 1930s movies her mom loved so much. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts but, as soon as the employee announced their arrival, his face lit up and a charming smile shone through the dark room. “Oh, good, good! Welcome, welcome!” he said with a joyful tone before crossing the room to shake Zabini and Nott’s hand while bowing slightly to the two witches. “Please, do sit down! George, bring us the tea, will you?

\- Right away, sir.”

As they sat down on the sofas, Hermione swiftly put her right hand in her pocket and held her wand tightly. Browne kept looking at each one of them, in turns, with a mysterious smile on his face. His stare lingered on Hermione before turning his attention to Pansy “Miss Parkinson, please, accept my deepest excuses. I vow to be more careful in the future regarding my guest list. Some young men of our society were not given the education they needed, I guess..” While his words and the tone of his voice were full of what he pretended to be remorse, his laughing eyes and the twitch of the corner of his lips betrayed the wizard. Pansy’s eyes darkened and Hermione was about to grab her hand when Zabini beat her to it on the other side and answered, with a voice as sweet as honey: “We were honored to have been invited at such a prestigious event and would like to apologize for the scene we caused.” Hermione’s momentary indignation was quickly replaced by a certain admiration for Zabini’s composure. She knew that the best they could do, right now, for Malfoy, was to put that incident behind them.

“Rumors have it you have questions for me.

\- Yes, sir. We believe our..our friend was here a few months ago.” replied Hermione, squirming when mentioning Draco Malfoy as her friend.

“Draco Malfoy.

\- Oh yes, yes indeed. A very intelligent fella. What of him?

\- We know he came to you asking for informations about a certain secret Veela society.” They were interrupted by employees serving them tea and cakes. The shining smile on Charles Browne’s face was replaced by a smirk that made Hermione uncomfortable. He poured tea on each of their cups in silence while still maintaining that smirk. Impatient, she was about to revive the conversation when she felt Theodore’s hand slowly landing on her arm. She looked at him and he seemed to tell her through his eyes to wait. “ I knew you to be a Gryffindor but that was quite direct for such a topic.” he replied, chuckling. “If such society was to exist and if I were to know where it resides, what make you think that I would have told your friend..Malfoy, is it?

\- Well, he disappeared shortly after coming to see you and, according to Professor Martins, if someone was to know where such society resides, it would be you, sir.” quickly answered Zabini. Hermione knew that he was using his Slytherin and Pure-blood skills to charm the information out of Browne but something told her that such tricks would not work with him. “What do you want, in exchange for the information you gave Malfoy?” she suddenly asked. Charles Browne’s smirk widened in a diabolical smile. “Yes, Yes, I see why Europe is found of you, miss Granger..” He put his untouched tea cup down on the table and got up. Pouring himself a glass of Brandy, he added “Well, since you seem to be certain that I know what you need, I guess it is time to stop the pleasantries and go straight to the matter. I did give the localization of the secret Veela society to your friend, miss Granger. However, as a valued friend of the society, I cannot deliver such crucial information without anything in return. Not for me, of course! For the society!”.

Walking to the door, he opened it and turned back to the young wizards, saying “A package will be delivered to your room.” before leaving them in the room alone.

“Is he mad?” whispered Theodore to which the other three shrugged.

Exhausted by the events of the last few days, the four wizards dragged themselves back to their suite and simply went to bed without a word, in the middle of the day. A few hours later, a knock on their door woke Pansy and Hermione up. Both hurried to the door to find a purple box on their doorstep. Taking the box back inside their room, Hermione woke the boys up before they all sat at the living room table to open it. A few failed Alohomoras later, the box was still closed. “For Merlin’s sakes!” groaned Zabini before trying to explode the box to no avail. Pansy carefully took the now fuming box into her hands and started to study it. The box seemed to be a simple purple gift box with a big black ribbon that seemed to be the lock. After a few minutes of turning it around in her hands, she smirked and whispered “oh the little fucker..” before looking right at Hermione.

“What?

\- It’s a blood spell. I guess he did this to protect what’s inside the box from any prying eyes besides ours.

\- But whose blood?” wondered Theodore out loud. Both men started to talk between themselves to deduct whose blood they would need to open the box but the dark look Pansy was giving her since she had studied the box reinforced what Hermione already knew. She silently pointed at herself while still staring into Pansy’s eyes who slightly nodded with a sorry smile on her face. “I guess it’s mine, isn’t it?” she asked for a last confirmation. “Come on! it can’t be!” cried Theodore, shocked.

“- Granger, I don’t think so, it could be anyone of us or all of us at once, really..

\- Think about it! You saw the way he apologized to Pansy. His words were full of remorse but his eyes were saying something else. Something tells me his choice of guests also reflects his principles.

\- But why would it be yours? Isn’t your blood dirty, or something? For him, I mean..

\- Yes, but it still is better to spill hers than our pure blood, isn’t it?” concluded Theodore, with a sarcastic tone and eyes darkened with anger. He looked at Hermione who gave him a little smile before he turned his back and went to the bathroom.

A few seconds later, he came back with a razor blade. He approached Hermione and took her hand in his right hand and held the blade in his left. His brown eyes were now black and he was standing so close to Hermione that she could feel his whole body shaking. With her free hand, she took the blade from Theodore and cut herself deep in the index before stamping it on the center of the ribbon knot. The ribbon trembled for a few seconds but stayed in place.

All of the sudden, Zabini let the glass of whiskey he was holding in his hand fall on the floor. “It’s not eno...the blood..it’s not enough.

\- I WILL KILL HIM! I SWEAR I’LL TEAR HIS GUTS OUT OF HIS REPULSIVE BODY!

\- Pansy..It’s okay.” slowly answered Hermione before slashing the palm of her hand open so quickly that the others gasped. Blood was now running down her fingers and she clenched her fist right above the knot so it would drip right on it. As soon as the drops of blood touched the ribbon, the black ribbon slowly turned red. “My blood is coloring the ribbon..” chuckled ironically Hermione. When the ribbon finally turned into a deep red color, it slowly fell down the box which opened right away.

Disgusted, Hermione retreated to the bathroom, like a robot. She had felt Pansy’s small fingers brush her arm, Zabini whispering her name and Theodore staring at her but she had ignored it all.

The bathroom was beautifully made of mainly white marble and rose gold taps. She stood for a while in front of the mirror looking at her reflection. She could see the blood dripping down her hand onto a beautiful light pink bathroom mat. She could also see her reflection shivering and trembling, with all the usual colors slowly leaving her skin. It was the same arm as the one Bellatrix Lestrange had carved “Mudblood” onto. She remembered how blood had gushed down the letters and had ruined one of Fleur’s carpets. Images of that day came rushing back in her mind.

She hadn’t realized how long she had been looking at herself in the mirror until she heard the bathroom door open and felt someone take the bloody arm in their hands. “Let’s clean that, shall we?” The voice talking to her was really nice and deep, _"like hot chocolate"_ , she thought. She could feel that the person was making her approach the bathroom sink but she couldn’t detach her eyes from her own reflection. She slowly felt the warmth of hot water washing away the blood off her hand. “I..I don’t know what to say..I’d understand if you’d want to go home..”

That last sentence brought her back to the present and she could now clearly see and feel Theodore Nott. Hermione had never seen someone so composed but yet so furious at the same time. Her eyes lingered on his face; _“That’s some really long lashes..”_ she thought to herself before looking at his nose _“and a really straight nose”_. Finally, she stared at his lips. Theodore, who, until now, kept on washing the blood away from her hand, suddenly stopped. He, too, began to look back and forth between her eyes and her lips.

“Theodore..

\- Theo..

\- Theo..

\- Hermione..” he whispered, slowly getting even closer to her.

Hermione couldn’t remember the last time she had been that close to a man. She could feel his lean stomach against her side, his strong legs against her hip and his breath on her face. The young woman found herself wondering if she could get any closer when three knocks on the door were heard. “Guys, you should come see what’s in the box.”

And just like that, Hermione felt like she had suddenly woken up from some sort of trance. She quickly took the nearest towel and wrapped her hand before hurrying out of the bathroom, leaving a frozen Theodore Nott behind. Pansy and Zabini were standing up, looking at several papers laid on the table. Hermione’s eyes first laid on four tickets to an exhibition of very expensive jewelry that would take place in two days. She remembered having seen a promotion poster on their shopping trip the first day. Right next to it was a big picture of an incredibly beautiful crown with blue diamonds. Zabini held out a letter to her, saying “He wants us to steal this crown for him.”

Indeed, the letter explained that the crown had belonged to the first Veela Queen, back when the society wasn’t yet secret but rather admired and feared by wizards and muggles alike. It had been stolen hundreds of years ago and had gone all over the world before ending up in Russian muggle hands.

“While you were in the bathroom, we called Professor Martins. He confirmed that there is tales of a lost Veela Crown with blue diamonds.

\- Well..We should get ready, shouldn’t we then ?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a lot, I'm sorry lol  
> What do y'all think ? isn't that Browne dude an ass? Theo x Hermione ?  
> By the way, the "a nice Sectumsempra aimed below his belt buckle" was inspired by one of you, readers ^^  
> Thanks for the kudos, comments and bookmarks!!


	7. A cold bath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, sorry, sorry..  
> A trip to a foreign land, the wonders of jobsearching and lots of weird shit have prevented me from finishing this chapter.  
> It's very chaotic. I wanted it to be chaotic but not that much.  
> Sorry in advance.

A few weeks ago, if someone had told Hermione Granger that she would spend hours plotting a burglary with three slytherins in the near future, she would have laughed at that person’s face and might have thrown in a small hex, for good measure. But here she was, sitting around a dark oak table with Pansy, Theo and Zabini, plotting to steal one of the most expensive pieces of jewelry on earth.

Half-empty boxes of dim-sum were laying on the table among maps of the Casino the exhibition would take place at. Zabini had left for a few hours and had managed to charm (with magic and his own self) information out of several people involved in the event: First, it would take place in not one but several rooms throughout the casino. Second, the room with the crown was only available for potential buyers with VIP tickets (which they had) and would be heavily guarded.

“Should we all use the disillusionment Charm on ourselves and do it?

\- I don’t think all of us being invisible is a good idea. They’ll have weird, high-tech muggle shit that will detect us being in the room.

\- Imagine a bunch of muggle security guards looking for invisible people...that would be a mess..” sniggered Pansy, munching on a piece of fried tofu. Hermione kept scratching her head with the tip of her chopstick, her eyes fixating on the map. The four of them stayed in silence, all deeply lost in their thoughts, until Theo muttered “If only we could just buy it and be done with it..” to which Hermione clapped her hands.

Surprised, Theo looked at her with an amused and told her “Gran..Hermione, we don’t have the funds for it. Even all the money the minister gave you after the war wouldn’t suffice for..

\- We don’t have to buy it..We can just pretend to!

\- What do you mean?” an intrigued Zabini asked. “Well, the way you three act on a daily basis makes it seem like you swim in an ocean of money for your daily exercise..” she smirked. “A simple spell to change some traits in your appearance, new names and you could easily be potential buyers!

\- Hmm..that could be the easiest way to enter that space..

\- Once inside, we could just lock the door and freeze and obliviate whoever is in there with us..

\- There will be cameras, muggle things that record what we do and who we are.

\- Well, shit..” As soon as Hermione mentioned the cameras, her friends seemed disappointed again but she couldn’t help grinning. Seeing such expression on the witch’s face, Pansy raised her eyebrows and smirked back at the witch “Boys, I can see smoke coming out of Granger’s head.

\- Well, I was just thinking that, when it comes to magic, we could go old school.. but in a muggle way.. while still using a bit of our real magic skills!

\- magic..old schoo.. what ?

\- Let me explain.”

The next day, the four wizards went shopping, early in the morning. The boys opted for beautiful suits each; navy blue for Theo and dark green for Zabini. Once again, Hermione just closed her eyes and let Pansy do the choosing for her. The witch had chosen a 30s-inspired off-white satin dress and a white fur coat for Hermione while she had picked out a Venice blue velvet dress for herself, inspired from the same era as the Gryffindor witch's outfit.

All of them had changed their names and some features in their appearance such as hair color or the size of their noses and lips. Hermione now was Penelope MacMillan, a slightly taller woman with long, straight black hair, a fringe and fuller lips while Pansy was Theodora Goldstein, a voluptuous blond with freckles and a longer nose. Zabini had grown dreadlocks for the day and was now Alastor Black while Theo was now white blonde (which weirdly reminded Hermione of Draco Malfoy) and had become Hadrian Yaxley.

Before going to the exhibition, Hermione Granger had received one last order from the others: “Pretend to be the Pansy Parkinson you thought you knew.” In order to present themselves as wealthy, potential buyers, Pansy would go in first and charm an hostess to make her think that they were really wealthy collectors before coming back to make a bigger entrance with the others. By doing that, the hostess would probably alert the exhibition personnel of the arrival of such prestigious clients which would lead them to ask for a private viewing of the crown and the other most precious elements of the exhibition. From then on, Hermione’s plan would start.

  


That first step went as well as it possibly could. When the foursome stepped into the hall and presented their tickets along with their names to the young muggle hostess, She had gasped and excused herself to make a phone call. A few minutes later, one of the curators himself came to escort the wizards to the exhibition. While silently surprised that it had went on so smoothly, Hermione kept her nose high, avoided eye contact with the hostess and the curators and only responded to them with haughty “hmph..”. While she was playing the role of Pansy Parkinson, the witch herself had taken on a totally different role; she kept hanging on Zabini’s arm, raving about everything around them with a really high voice while giggling and stroking his cheek and chin with her long fingers: “Dear, Oh Dear, look at this splendid vase ! wouldn’t it look exceptional in our second living-room? and this sculpture in our downstairs guest bathroom !

\- Yes, Dear.

\- I would find myself to be much happier if I could look at such oeuvres d’art all day long!

\- We’ll come back to it, ma chérie, do not worry your fragile heart.” and they kept going, on and on, Pansy gushing and Zabini nodding from room to room. The curator would stop and explain briefly each piece to Pansy and Zabini while Hermione and Theo would stroll around the room, locking arms and pretending to whisper sweet things to each other: “Are you okay?” Theo whispered between his teeth as he smiled to Hermione and tuck a piece of her hair behind her ear. Slightly awkward due to the sudden display of affection, Hermione quickly remembered that, for an outsider, she was Penelope MacMillan, a rich potential buyer, flirting away with her companion. Quickly composing herself, she got closer to Theo, leaned on him while tip-toeing and whispered in his year “Yes. Stop asking.” before landing back down, with a wide smile still on her face.

While Hermione was still an avid consumer of muggle theater and movies, she had never thought of herself as a good actress, her honest and blunt Gryffindor side preventing her from it. However, the last years spent on the run, first from Voldemort and then from the media and her own life, had taught her a few skills. She silently laughed to herself as she thought that, if one of her Hogwarts friends would see her flirting away with Theo like she was, no one, Potter and Weasleys included, would doubt her attraction to the tall brunet.

As she realized one of the guards was looking in their direction, she leaned back onto his torso, slightly stroke his cheek before kissing the other. As soon as her lips touched his cheek, Hermione could feel the young man stop breathing and freeze. She knew this was all acting but, apparently, her heart did not as it skipped a few beats. Quickly standing away from him, she took his hand in hers before walking to where Pansy, Zabini and the curator were standing. “ We will now be entering the white room where you will be able to see some of the most extraordinary pieces this casino has ever had the privilege to exhibit.”

Pansy, once again the incredible actress that she is, squealed loudly in delight before pretty much floating away through the open doors, followed closely by Zabini and the others.

  


The white room was.. well, very white. So white that it hurt Hermione’s eyes for a second. As soon as her eyes acclimated to the room, she first saw a few sculptures of what seemed to be the muggle interpretation of fairies, several paintings depicted battles between celestial beings and, amongst a few dark oak tables on which were exhibited jewelry and vases, was a small table made of glass with a blue velvet cushion on top of which was the famous crown. They all had previously decided to ignore the crown at first and concentrate on the paintings and jewelry. Pansy had spotted on one of the tables on the opposite side of the room a beautiful gold necklace with red gems. Delighted, she began to babble and gush over the jewelry piece: “Oh dear, wouldn’t it look splendid with my wedding dress?? Wouldn’t it??? Look at it!

\- Hmm.. I don’t know, Dear..There might be something else, somewhere else, more fit for a queen like you..

\- Sir, if I may, this is an incredible piece from the 14th century that was said to have belonged to the Romanov family before the tragic…”

As the curator was busy trying to convince Zabini to make an offer for the necklace, the second part of the plan began. Hermione slowly began to drift away from the necklace table to the direction of the crown, she kept stopping at each table and taking the time to observe the pieces and check the prices to not awake any suspicion. While doing that, she inspected the room and was surprised to find that, unlike the other rooms, this one was without security cameras. _“They might think that the four guards for one room is enough..”_ she thought to herself.

On the other end, Theo pretended to be interested by the paintings that were the furthest away from Hermione, especially the ones not hung on the wall but exhibited on easels. He began to make conversation to the two nearest guards: “Would you buy this one? I mean, it is quite lovely but I wouldn’t put it anywhere else than in my employee’s bathroom. This one, on the other hand..” Hermione could see the two guards nodding awkwardly to Theo while the other two were near the exit. She had now stopped to the second to last table before the crown and blankly stared at a set of hair pieces from the Goryeo dynasty while thinking _“I have exactly three minutes to conjure a duplicate of the crown before Theo does his bit”_.

From the corner of her eye, she looked at the crown two tables ahead and took her wand out of her pocket. Opening her coat, she began to conjure the duplicate out of a hat. While such a simple spell is usually done at once, Hermione wanted it to be perfect enough to dupe the owner and curators. Two minutes into her wand work, Theo, who now had charmed the guards enough for them to engage into a conversation was now telling them the story of a frenchman, an american and a spaniard going on a ski trip. “And as the frenchman went down the slope, the American opened his arms like that” Theo opened his arms really wide. “And started to run around like that!” And he ran, purposefully knocking one small painting exhibited on an easel, making all the others paintings nearby fall on the floor. Soon, the sound of the alarm echoed into the room and Zabini and Pansy, pretending to be shocked, ran towards Theo with the curator.

  


This was now or never for Hermione Granger. A quick levitation spell put the replica on the cushion as soon as the real crown levitated to the inside of Hermione’s coat. As soon as she was done, she too ran towards the scene: “What happened? I was so mesmerized by the earrings back there that I didn’t see!

\- My deepest apologies, everyone. I was telling that funny story our dear friend told us yesterday to these gentlemen and in my wish to act it as well as he did, I knocked down this paintings..I’m so sorry, I will pay for any damage..

\- No such thing, Mr Yaxley, sir! It seems that they are not damaged at all, nothing to worry about!!” reassured the curator while helping the guards put back the paintings on their easels. At that same moment, Hermione pretended to enquire about Theo’s well being by leaning on him and turning his face from right to left “Monsieur Yaxley, dear, are you hurt ? let me see!” while Theo secretly opened her coat again and took from inside the crown and put it behind his back. “I am okay, sweetheart. Nothing buying a beautiful oeuvre d’art or two won’t fix!” he laughed as he walked away from her, still holding the crown behind him. Zabini left Pansy’s side and came to half-hug Theo with his left arm while laughing loudly “My dear Hadrian, that Chateau Lafite 1869 we drank at lunch must have had some effect on you!” while taking the crown from behind his friend’s back and put it against his own.

“Friends, I believe it is time to take our leave. We have caused enough trouble to Mr..

\- Dupont, sir.” answered the curator while bowing deeply.

“To Monsieur Dupont. We shall go and discuss which pieces we would like to purchase, if it is alright with you, Monsieur.

\- Of course, of course. Your VIP tickets grant you an unlimited access to the exhibition. You are welcome to come back to offer your price, although I must tell you that most pieces are not on sale..unless a favorable price is offered, of course..” he added, a mischievous smile on his face.

“If you would follow me, I will guide you through the last security procedures before sending you on your way.

\- security procedures?

\- Yes, sir. Our client has insisted on making all guests go through an extensive set of security procedures at the end of their tour.

\- I doubt it would be necessary for us, though.

\- Of course, of course!” the curator was now sweating. “I am deeply sorry for the inconvenience but it will take only a minute or two!

\- Are you accusing us of stealing anything? As if we don’t have the means to buy all of it and you included!” Pansy was now pretty much launching herself at the poor man, talking in a very high, offended tone. Hermione wondered if this was pure acting or if some old part of Pansy Parkinson had resurfaced against such accusations. “Dear, Dear, come on..Monsieur Dupont here is not insinuating anything.

\- Of course, Madam. This is only the protocole, you see. Nothing against you!

\- Hmph..” she replied before suddenly hugging fiercely Zabini and start to cry. Hermione could see from behind that the witch was in reality trying to take the crown from Zabini’s hand. Her arm was too short to reach over his shoulder to the back which made the cries last a bit longer than expected. Had this been in other circumstances, Hermione would have laughed but the unexpected security protocol had thrown her off guard. She then strode towards the curator and, with her most seductive voice, began to ask: “Monsieur Dupont, how did a wonderful man such as yourself end up on this part of the world? I would imagine that such genius as yourself would have become the most famous historian on earth by now!

\- Oh Madame, it’s an honor for you to think of me like that. I indeed have…” the curator began a tirade about his life accomplishments and what had led him to become a curator for this exhibition while Hermione pretended to be hung on each and every one of his words, linking both of her arms to the curator’s.

This gave enough time for both of the young men to form some sort of barricade for Pansy to hide behind with the crown without the guards being able to see her. She took out her wand out of her thigh wand holster and was about to reduce the crown to the size of a ring. “Reducio!” she whispered. The crown, however, seemed to have a mind of its own and not only kept its original size but began to vibrate and shine a blue light. Even though both Zabini and Theo were rather tall men, the crown was shining so bright that they were soon enveloped in a bright blue halo. The curator who was still engrossed in telling his whole entire life to Hermione suddenly stopped and stuttered: “Wha..Whatis..MON DIEU, WHAT’S THAT?” which caught the attention of the four guards. The two on Hermione’s right were as shocked as the curator and were trying to take their guns out of their holsters with shaky hands. Hermione was about to wield her wand out when the two other guards on her left suddenly took their wands out of their jackets and knocked the two other guards out with a silent spell. As both the muggle guards slid against the wall, the curator let out a shriek, backed away hastily, banged his head on a corner and fainted right on top of them. “WANDS ON THE FLOOR!

\- RIGHT NOW!” suddenly yelled the two wizarding guards to the foursome, pointing their wands at each of them. Hermione decided to distract them to give a chance for her companions to escape. She grabbed the closest vase and held it high above her head.

“One move and I break it!

\- we are not here to protect the va...AAAH!”

  


Hermione had come to the conclusion earlier while perusing that the crown was the only magical object in this exhibition and therefore those guards were there to only protect it. Although she knew breaking the vase meant no threat for them, it gave the others the necessary few seconds to take their wands out.

Thanks to a spell thrown by Pansy, the guard talking to Hermione had flown halfway through his sentence to the other side of the room, knocking over a greek statue who shattered into a thousand pieces on the floor. The large man had managed to throw mid-flight a spell back to Pansy who was still holding the crown. As he flew, so did she, landing on a large table where several Tibetan vases were exposed. The other guard was now fighting against Theo while Zabini had rushed towards Pansy who was now bleeding profusely from both of her arms but still holding firmly the crown in her hand. As the first guard was getting slowly back up,

Hermione knew there was only one solution; they would have to split up. “Zabini!” he didn’t hear her call his name. “Blaise! Go! Take Pansy and the crown and go!” Surprised, the young wizard looked at her with uncertainty in his eyes before nodding and wrapping his arms around Pansy who had now lost all of her colors. With Hermione and Theo blocking the two wizard guards, Blaise took Pansy in his arms and ran through the exit door.

  


“The crown! Give us back the crown and we’ll let you go!” roared the first guard, brandishing his wand towards Hermione. Theo had managed to knock down the second guard with a series of spells and was now facing the first one too, a few meters away on Hermione’s right.

“Who are you ? who paid you to be here? This exhibition is supposed to be owned by a muggle!

\- None of your business. The crown, n...aaagh!!” Hermione did not know how long they spent dueling, throwing hexes and jinxes at each other. As the second guard was still unconscious on the ground, Hermione and Theo were now battling the first guard together. The wizard was very skilled and knew how to stand his ground against a biggest number of opponents. Spells were flying around, exploding the vases and burning away the paintings. Smoke coming from all the spells was now pretty much blinding Hermione but she was certain that they were having the upper hand as the guard seemed to slow down and groan more and more as the spells flew by. Such confidence only lasted a few seconds until a stinging hex grazed Hermione’s thigh which made her wince in pain. “Hermione!!” cried Theo, still throwing hexes at the guard.

“I’m oka…

\- AAAAAGH”

  


The deafening scream surprised not only Hermione but also the guard with whom she was fighting which meant that he had not been the one throwing the hex. The second guard had finally gained consciousness and was crouching down, still wincing from pain, pointing his wand at Theo. Hermione hadn’t heard which spell he had thrown but Theo was now laying on the floor, quivering.

Seeing him on the floor, she froze and waited for her old friend to come back. That old friend was fear. Hermione Granger had learned to work well with fear, to even use it to her advantage. Fear had left her side a few months ago, on May the Second. The witch had had a hard time learning to navigate through life without fear of dying, of losing everyone and everything she loved. But now, that familiar feeling was pushing her to think straight, almost mechanically. One hex flew from her wand to the first guard, making him stumble and lose his wand in the smoke. A combination of a few hexes were sent towards the second guard who was now practically standing up. He managed to fight them back but still gave Hermione the time to run towards Theo, still lying on the floor.

“Theo, look at me! Theo!

\- Hermi……” He was still awake but seemed to have lost all strength. Hermione’s fear had now taken control over her, guiding her every move. She wasn’t afraid to die. She was afraid to lose Theo, to not be able to find Malfoy. That was all Fear needed. As she grabbed Theo by the waist, she threw every single jinx and hex she knew to the last guard standing while backing away through the exit. Something was telling her that they would be able to disapparate once they were outside of the room.

Several spells and lots of smoke later, after what seemed to be an eternity, Hermione felt the exit door against her back. With one last hex which made the guard fall on his behind, she pushed the door and fell backwards, Theo in her arms. However, as she finally touched the floor, she wasn’t at the exhibition anymore. The cold marble floor of the exhibition she was expecting to fall on was now the warm carpet of their hotel room. Which one of them had side-apparated? Why didn’t she feel a thing? She didn’t know. What she knew is that they were safe.

  


“Granger!! are you okay?” she felt Pansy’s frantic hands trying to get her hair out of her face. Once the brown curtain had finally been lifted, Hermione could see two pairs of worried eyes staring at her. She could also feel weight on her stomach and chest. Holding her head up, she saw that Theo was laying on her, unconscious. “Theo..help Theo..” she groaned before falling into slumber.

  


When she woke up, Hermione was laying on a bed next to Theo. She was feeling surprisingly okay but she could see that her friend was getting worse. Rising from under the covers, she sat on her knees next to the wizard. He was sweating and shaking profusely. A hand on his forehead told Hermione that he was burning up from a fever. Scared, she called out for the other two, hoping they were in another room of the suite, but saw a quick note stuck on the side table lamp.

_“We went to see that son of a bitch with the crown._

_Take care of Theo,_

_we’ll be back asap._

_P.”_

  


A bath. A cold bath is what Theo needed.

Going straight to the bathroom, she ran the coldest bath she could and tried to levitate Theo but she felt too weak to use any magic. Using her good old muggle strength, she put one of Theo’s arms around her neck and held him against her waist before dragging him to the bathroom.

“I can’t put you in the bath with all your clothes or it will be impossible to take them off afterwards..sorry..” she muttered, suddenly feeling very awkward. She sat him on the edge of the bathtub and began to peel off one item at the time. As she was unbuttoning his shirt, she felt Theo’s weak hands on her forearms.

“Mione..

\- Shh..let me do it.” and his hands fell back down on his knees. His eyes were now wide open, staring at her but she knew that his mind was far away. Carefully, she helped him get into the water “brr..cold..fuck..” he groaned before letting a moan of contentment and closing his eyes again. She took a bath sponge and began to run water all over his face.

A few minutes went by in silence before Theo began to murmur something.

“What did you say?

\- Funny..

\- What is funny?

\- This.

\- Me washing you?

\- all of this. you.

\- Nott, if you have enough strength to ramble, you better tell me what’s on your mind right now.

\- Theo..

\- Theo.

\- Christmas..third year..He kept talking about you..

\- who?

\- and I aske..brr..asked him why..and he got reall..

\- what?

\- really mad. but I knew, ya know..

\- You knew what?

\- He loved you from the beginn..

\- what? who?

\- Drakey dracooow..

\- You’re not making any sense, Theodore Nott. Shut up.

\- No, lots of sense. I know because..hmm.. he looked at you lik..

\- like what?

\- like I looked at him.

\- Oh..”

Her face had gotten red, she could feel it.

She knew that it was probably the fever talking. Maybe not about the part about his feelings for Draco but about Draco Malfoy loving her. Some tiny voice inside her head was telling her that it would explain why he wrote that he would come to see her after everything.

She suddenly laughed out loud “Bollocks..you’re as high as a kite.” He opened back his eyes, stared at her for a second and laughed. “Out. cold. please.”

She took a bathrobe and covered his naked body with it while he slowly made his way out of the bathtub. He leaned back against her and put an arm over her shoulder. They slowly walked back to the bed, stumbling against tables and chairs. As she was trying to push back the covers, Theo put both of his hands on her shoulders and made her face him. His eyes closed, he was smiling.

“What?

\- You want to know something funny?

\- I guess.

\- I have grown to like the girl the boy I used to love loves.” and with that sentence, he fell on top of her.

Frozen beneath him, Hermione couldn’t do anything but stare at his face. He was staring back at her, studying every single feature of her face. When he began to stare at her lips, the witch was about to lose her mind.

_Did she want it? Did she want to kiss him? Was he the one she wanted? Was she ready?_

All those thoughts were killed the moment his lips carefully touched her forehead. That kiss seemed to last an eternity until he rolled on his side and let out a snore. She laid there for a few minutes, in the dark, still dumbfounded by what had just happened, until the suite room opened.

  


“Hermione! We know where he is!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE HAVE A BISEXUAL KING IN OUR PRESENCE.  
> And a weird-ass love triangle.
> 
> I tried to do a very "Now You See Me 2"-like scene for the burglary but it didn't come out as I wished. Oh, well..
> 
> By the way, random question: what's your fan-cast for Theo? I still haven't found the perfect actor/celebrity for him. Recs, please !


	8. White Fists.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, Hello, Hello.  
> First, thanks for the 100+ kudos! and the 2400+ hits and the comments!   
> This chapter is weird: it feels like nothing special happens but at the same time, it's important.  
> There's violence (but nothing really violent, you know.)

_ “Granger, _

_ Who would have known that Miss Knows-it-all would go to the other side of the world for a piece of shit of a Death Eater like me? If you are reading this, I guess that old son of a bitch Browne is not as dishonest as I thought he would be. I will keep this short: I now know where to find them. The Veela Realm is in the Forest Saint-Loup in the french Alps.  _

_ Find me, _

_ Draco.”  _

She had read the first page of what seemed to be yet another of Draco Malfoy’s small leather journals for the tenth time before tearing her eyes from the pages:

“Are we sure it’s his? And how did he get this information?

\- He actually got it from Browne himself. From what that bastard said, he showed Draco his memories of the journey to the Realm and let Draco take notes.

\- Did he show you the memories? 

\- We asked but he answered, I quote, “Where’s the fun in that?” 

\- Cockless bastard..” spat Hermione before turning the pages of the notebook. 

It seemed to be a fairly new one as only a few pages were full. After the page with the letter addressed to herself, she found drawings of maps and key points of the journey such as the outline of a certain mountain, the ruins of a house in the middle of the forest and even some road signs written in French. 

“We should go home.” she declared after a few minutes of silence. 

“What? Why?!” cried Pansy. Blaise only looked at her with a surprised look that still seemed to say “I was wondering when you’d give up”. Hermione stared back at him for a few seconds before answering “I am not giving up.” Both of them relaxed. “I just think that we need to update Harry and the ministry. We will also need weapons and more informations on this forest. I doubt it will just be a walk in the park to get there.

\- To London, then. 

\- Tomorrow. Theo needs to rest.” she replied before nodding to the dark mass on the bed. 

“Ugh my head.. I feel like I have the worst hangover ever known by mankind.” moaned Theo while rubbing his eyes vigorously. “ Why didn’t we just portkey? 

\- You are still too weak for that..Me too, to be honest.. And well, a bit of persuasion..” Pansy cracked her knuckles. “made our esteemed friend Mr Browne lend us his private jet so let’s enjoy it while we can..

\- Well, while we are stuck in this awful machine for a day, would you mind getting me back to speed? I don’t remember anything after the crown starting to glow..”

While Blaise and Pansy started telling him what happened the day before, Hermione kept on staring at him and then avoiding his stare every time he would look back at her. She wondered if his lack of memory from the previous day also included what he said and did when they were alone. 

Much like many of her classmates, Hermione Granger did find Theodore Nott very attractive. With his light brown hair and his big hazel eyes, he had made her heart flutter more than once on this weird adventure. His personality wasn’t disagreeable either; while more tamed and silent than Blaise, he still had his moments of wit and was a true gentleman. 

Yet, Hermione wasn’t here to begin anything. In all honesty, she didn’t even really know yet why she was here but, one thing for sure, she hadn’t come to the other side of the world to start a relationship with an old classmate she hardly knew. 

“....and then, we left to see Browne while Hermione took care of you. 

\- Oh..what happened then, Hermione?” asked Theo, shifting on his seat to make his knees touch hers. 

“ Hmm.. nothing special. I gave you a cold bath and put you to bed. 

\- A bath? did something else happen?” asked Blaise, wiggling his eyebrows. Theo coughed. Pansy smiled.

“ No, what the hell? no.” rebuffed Hermione before turning her face to the plane window, resolved on not participating to the conversation until the plane landed but, as she felt a hand slightly touch her knee, she looked back to see Theo leaning towards her. She looked at his hand on her knee before raising her eyebrows in question. Theo smiled, mouthed “Thank you.”, squeezed her knee before taking a newspaper on the tray besides him and starting reading it. 

Was he thanking her for her help, not remembering anything? Was he thanking her for lying and saying nothing? Was he ashamed? _“Who cares..”_ thought Hermione to herself before falling asleep. 

Still half-asleep and very much jetlagged, Hermione, Pansy, Theo and Blaise stepped into the British Ministry of Magic on a very cold night of December. They had been gone for more than two weeks now, full nights of sleep had been sparse and the exhaustion could be seen from a mile away on their faces. After a few well-deserved hugs, Hermione and her travel companions sat down with world-known Auror Harry Potter and the Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt. 

“So in conclusion, I’ll have to send a full tactical team of aurors because this whole thing is way too dangerous for you.” declared the Minister, his arms crossed.

“No, Kingsley. no. We have done things to get to where we are. 

\- Things that could jeopardize the relations of our country and the rest of the world.. 

\- ..and we might have to do it again so it would be better for us to act on our own...

\- ..And suffer from the consequences on our own and not as a country.

\- I don’t like it, I don’t like it, I just don’t…” began to ramble Harry, pacing around his office. “Minister, I ask for a leave of absence. I’ll go with them.

\- Harry, no! You’re still too much of a target and.. are you willing to leave Ginny again?

\- Also, Potter, may I remind you that, without you, rebuilding our society is simply impossible?” asked Kingsley. 

Harry sighed, shrugged and let himself fall down on his chair again, a pout on his face. Smiling, Hermione grabbed his hand and said: “I would love for you to come, more than anything, but it’s too dangerous and quite illegal.. You can’t be involved with this..Not this time.

\- I can’t let my only family go.. What if..

\- Potter, nothing is going to happen to Hermione as long as we are there with her.” interjected Pansy. 

“And why would I believe you? I know you are all reformed and shit but..

\- I trust them, Harry.” replied Hermione. 

“ You sure seem to..” he groaned before staring into her eyes for a second before adding, a determined look on his face: “Well, let’s get you ready then. But first, Parkinson and Nott, to the hospital.” 

Two days went by before Pansy and Theo were discharged from the hospital. Two days in which Hermione and Blaise spent their time in Harry’s office, planning and researching while taking turns to visit the two others, every few hours. 

On the first day, Hermione was halfway to Grimmauld place after leaving the hospital when she realized she had left Malfoy’s journal in Pansy’s room. As she went back to Pansy’s room, she heard Zabini’s voice coming out of Pansy’s voice:

“You can’t just put your life on the line for him and expect me to not get mad!

\- You’re doing it too!

\- Yes but you were together!

\- AND WE’RE NOT ANYMORE! Blaise, for fuck’s sakes! this is why it’s never going to work between us..

\- I don’t want you to die for him! it has nothing to do with us!

\- I won’t! And it has everything to do with you being a jealous little fuck! You never had the balls to tell me how you feel and now, here you are, yelling at me for my choices and still not saying what you really want to say! You cockless scared motherfucker..

\- Fuck you, Pans’..”

Blaise almost smashed into Hermione who had frozen against the wall near the door. 

“Granger, what you..what are you doing here?

\- I..I forgot the..” she saw that he had the journal in his hand. “That. I forgot that.” she replied, pointing at the journal.

“Oh.. I was going to bring it to you at Potter’s place. I needed to talk about some things with him.

\- Do you..do you want to go together?

\- Yeah..Yup, why not..” he replied, his hands in his pocket, his eyes avoiding Hermione’s. 

“We can walk from here, it’s not that far.. Unless you’d rather apparate..

\- No, no. let’s walk. I need some air.”

They walked in silence for a while. Hermione was trying to find a way to bring up the topic of what she had heard at the hospital but a voice in her head was saying _ “Who cares about those pure-blood entitled little shits..You are not friends with them, nore you will ever be.. You are just helping them find their friend and after that, all of you will go your separate ways..” _ It was hard to silence that voice. It had been with her since her first encounter with Malfoy and his friends. Yet, she found herself not agreeing on some points; although they would probably go their separate ways once they find Malfoy, Hermione found herself becoming quite fond of the three slytherins.  _ “Even you, Blaise Zabini, you weird, slimy…” _

“You heard what happened, right?” Blaise’s voice tore her away from her internal dilemma. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry..it seemed to be quite private..” 

Blaise laughed: “Not that private..all the Slytherins knew..Was Malfoy not a Death Eater and shit, they would have laughed about it right in our faces..

\- What do you mean?

\- Well, Pansy loving Malfoy, Malfoy fucking her for some twisted reason but not loving her in return, Theo’s weird infatuation with Malfoy, me...me loving Pansy..

\- I see..Quite the love..not a triangle.. what would we call that?

\- A mess, Granger. We would call that a fucking mess.”

  
  


When Hermione woke up the next day, Blaise was asleep in one of the sofas of the living-room in Grimmauld Place. The smell of coffee told her that someone was in the kitchen. 

“Ginny? Harry?

\- It’s me.” Harry responded. “Ginny is in Canada for a week for work. Coffee? 

\- Yes, please.” 

It felt weird to sit at the long kitchen table, only the two of them. Last time Hermione had been here was a few days after the war, with the remaining members of the Dumbledore’s army and the Order of the Phoenix. She swore she could still see the stains of blood and tears on the wood of the table. 

“It’s weird, for you isn’t it?” she looked up and looked at Harry who was frowning. “You haven’t been here, in well, a thousand years and you just spent the last weeks looking for the guy we hate the most, after Voldemort.

\- after Voldemort.

\- And there’s a Slytherin asleep on my couch.

\- Yes, what the fuck?” she laughed.

“We talked about Malfoy, his mother, you, until really late this morning.. All the details you couldn’t give me last time. I pity the bloke.. I mean, If I knew there was a weird secret society that could help me resurrect my parents, Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, Fred or even Dobby..I would.. I would, I mean.. 

\- I know..” she choked back on her tears, leaning on the opposite side of the table to take her friend’s hand. 

“Oh by the way, I got the papers. You don’t have to sign them right away.. you can take your time or..

\- Harry..

\- Or if you changed your mind, nothing between you and me is going to change..

\- Harry, I will sign those papers. Just let me do that after we find Malfoy. It will be something to look forward to and it will feel like I proper ending.

\- Okay..Great!” He smiled, seemingly relieved and happy to see Hermione had not changed her mind. “Let’s wake Zabini. We need to have breakfast before going to the ministry.”

  
  


“As your mission is kind of special, let’s say.. I thought that you might need some special weapons and tools. Things that were made on the fringe of illegality, that the ministry cannot officially give you but that you could easily buy..

\- Are we going to see..

\- Yup!”

“Well, i’ll be damned! Hermione Granger, you come here!” Hermione ran into George Weasley’s arms and hugged him fiercely. “Thanks for the letters, by the way..I wasn’t ignoring you, I was just..I just didn’t..

\- I know. I am glad you got them.” she answered, both of her hands on each side of her friend’s face. “You look..

\- dead ? I am trying to keep the twinning thing alive..

\- George!

\- Sorry, still new at the whole “my twin is dead and I am trying to live through it” thing..” he muttered before hugging Hermione once more. With a sad smile on his face, he let her go before stepping towards Zabini, who looked uneasy in such a colorful, vibrant and noisy place as the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. 

“Zabini.

\- Weasley.

\- Welcome to my humble shop.

\- It’s wow.. I mean..

\- Thanks.” replied George awkwardly before clapping hands. “So weapons. Weapons that our dear incompetent of a ministry cannot give you.” 

Soon, Harry, Zabini, George and Hermione were sitting at a table at the back of the store, looking at several products George had put together for their expedition: 

“I prepared enough Bruise-healing paste...decoy detonators...extendable ears..shield cloaks...Instant darkness powder..some night vision goggles..some meal gums..

\- Meal gums ?

\- You chew them and instantly have a multi-course meal. It keeps you relatively full for a few hours, in case you can’t find any food or cannot be arsed to…

\- ‘Mione?”

A shiver went down Hermione’s spine. The room went silent and all of them turned their heads towards the door then towards her. She froze on her seat, her hands grasping the edge of the table with such strength that her knuckles had gone white. She granted herself a few seconds to put herself back together, then replied:

“Ronald.”

George and Harry looked as if they were willing to bury themselves in the tiniest hole they could find, expecting the fight of the century, while Zabini just stared at Hermione with his arms crossed, not blinking even once. Something told her from the way he was looking at her that, although they were hardly friends, he would not let Ron get too close to her. 

“Hmm..Long time no see.

\- Indeed. How have you been? 

\- good, great...thanks.” he said before looking at Zabini with an expression full of questions. 

\- “Ron, you know Blaise Zabini, from school.

\- Weasley.

\- Zabini.” both nodded to each other. 

“What brings you to our shop?” Ron asked Zabini.

“ Our shop?” asked Hermione before looking at George.

“Yeah, Ron joined me a few weeks ago. I needed the help and he..

\- Needed the job.” finished Ron, scratching his head. “ ‘Mione.. Can we..Can we talk?

\- Boys, keep on explaining everything to Zabini. I trust him.” Hermione told Harry and George who simply nodded before getting back to talking about the products, a tad too enthusiastic. 

As Hermione got up from her chair, Blaise put his hand on her arm and stared at her silently. She mouthed “I’m okay.” with a smile that she hoped would seem reassuring. He nodded once and let her go. 

Ron was sitting on one of the counters of the shop in the dark, staring at the floor. She sat on the same counter while still keeping a rather big distance between the both of them. A few minutes went by before Ron broke the silence:

“Mione..where were you?

\- Here and there.

\- With Zabini? 

\- I have been traveling with Zabini for only a few weeks. Before that, I was alone. 

\- But why? Harry doesn’t want to tell me, he says that you should be the one telling me but you don’t say..

\- I am looking for Malfoy.”

Ron snorted. “Good one, ‘Mione.” before looking at her. As he saw that she wasn’t joking, his expression slowly went from amused to shocked to confused: “Malfoy? What the hell! Why? Aren’t our lives way better now that he has gone wherever the fuck he is ? I’m sure he’s on one of his private islands..

\- No, he’s not. He’s been missing for several months and I ..

\- Why are you looking for trouble ? Wasn’t everything we’ve been through enough? I understand that you had your reasons for leaving me but, fuck!! Mione, you need to stop and start living a normal life! If it’s not with me then with..

\- Ronald, stop! 

\- But..

\- Could you let me tell you what’s going on before you keep on going?” 

Ron froze for a moment, then nodded. Hermione told him everything he needed to know, from that night in Praha to Coimbra to Macau, leaving some details out such as the weird things happening between her and Theo. 

“So, if I am not wrong, you are searching for Malfoy because he wrote you letters that he never sent and now you pity him and are willing to put your life on the line for that ferret ?

\- Ron, I am not asking for your permission..you know that, right? I didn’t ask for your permission when I left you, I am sure as hell not going to ask for it now.” she snapped, jumping out of the counter. He gasped in response but then stayed silent. 

She stood there, turning her back to him, trying to control her incoming anger. Her fists were losing color due to how strongly she was clenching them and her whole body was shaking. 

That was the problem with Ronald Weasley. He was a wonderful, honest man, with a heart of gold and Merlin knew how she wished there were more of him in this world. However, no matter how hard she tried to convince herself, she knew that she would never be truly free with him. What she found endearing in Molly Weasley, she found it suffocating in Ron; the way he was always hovering over her shoulder, asking where she went, who she was with, what she was doing, questioning every single one of her moves made her feel like she was a prisoner. 

Suddenly, she felt his hands on her arms. She felt claustrophobic and her anger kept on rising slowly inside of her. 

“ ‘Mione, come on.. I gave you space. I understand that I can be a lot, sometimes.. I’ll give you more space, I’ll be better.. Just stay. Let Zabini, Nott and Parkinson look for the ferret. Stay, ‘Mione..

\- Get. your hands. off of me.” she breathed, marking every word. When he didn’t, she turned to face him. He looked at her, smiled and said “You were always so stubborn..” before trying to hug her. 

What happened next was meant to happen for years, she thought to herself. She didn’t know if it was the claustrophobic feeling he gave her that made her do it but, the second her fist collided with Ron’s cheek, she felt more exhilarated and free than ever before. 

Not expecting that, Ron stumbled on a bookshelf filled with trinkets. Many of them fell on the floor and made such noise that the others came running from the back. 

“FUCK ‘MIONE! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?

\- You are, Ronald. You are.” she answered, chuckling sadly. “I hope that, one day, you find someone that wants to be smothered to death but that is not and will never be me.

\- So you’re going to leave me, my family and Harry and go look for the ferret? She needs to be looked at, she’s fucked up!” he said to the others while laughing angrily, his hand still against his cheek.

“fucked up??” repeated Hermione before launching herself at him and knee kicking him between the legs. She was getting ready to punch him in the face once more when she felt strong arms lifting her off the floor. “Hermione, leave a piece of my moron of a brother for me, please..” she heard the person hiss in her ear. Ron was lying on the floor, whining, both hands between his legs, with Harry standing next to him. Hermione couldn’t hear what he was saying to him but, from the reddish color of his face, Harry was scolding him like never. 

As George finally put her down, she felt a hand on her lower back. Zabini was standing next to her. “Granger, you okay?” he whispered in her ear. 

She ignored him and walked towards Ron: “Yes, I am fucked up. I am fucked up because I spent my formative years on the run, trying to keep both of you alive while being hunted for things I had no control over. I am fucked up because I have never known anything but war, loss and fear. I am fucked up because I spent years trying to understand you while you never did. So yes, excuse me if I don’t want to be with anyone right now, if I don’t want to become your housewife or whatever the fuck you imagined in your head. I love you, I love Harry and I always will but I need you both to step the fuck back and let me be! I don’t know why I am doing this, what hanging out with Slytherins and looking for Malfoy will bring me but.. FUCK! I NEED THIS!” 

Her last words resonated in the deafening silence of the vast shop. The four men were staring at her, mouths open and shocked expressions on their faces. Slowly, Harry nodded and gave her a look that told her everything his mouth couldn’t. George took his brother’s arm and put it over his shoulder to make him stand. Ron, lost, just whispered “I don’t understand..I don’t..I just..

\- Well, little brother, you may never understand. But I do.. and I’ll make sure you’ll leave Hermione alone.” answered George, giving a sad smile to Hermione. 

He nodded towards Zabini and approached the nearest fireplace with his brother. She heard him announce “The Burrow.” before disappearing into the green flames. 

She hears a whisper saying something similar to “No wonder he was so obsessed with you..” coming from Zabini’s direction. 

“What did you say?

\- I was saying that now that you have let it out of your system, we should all go home and rest. We’re leaving tomorrow. I’ll come by Grimmauld Place with the others as soon as they’re discharged.” he answered before leaving the shop. 

Confused, she stared at the corner where Blaise Zabini had stood a few moments ago.  “Let’s get the weapons at the back and go home, shall we?” she heard Harry say. 

On the evening of the second day, she did something weird. After wishing a good night to an exhausted Harry, she sat on the carpet by the fire in the living-room. She took the notebook they had gotten from Browne out of her bag and opened it at the last page. There, she wrote:

_ “Malfoy, _

_ Tonight, I had to beat the shit out of Ron Weasley to make him understand why I am going after you. I don’t know what took over me but I think my thoughts are clear now: I will not cease until I find you. I’ll do it for me because I need one last adventure before I settle down. I’ll do it for them because if they managed to be your friends all these years, it means that love exists even in the darkest of hearts. And I’ll do it for her. Because she saved the person I love the most in this world, I’ll save the person she loved as much. And maybe, who knows, we will get to know each other. Or maybe it will just be the end of everything and the beginning of anything else. Who knows.  _

_ I’ll find you, Draco.  _

_ Hermione J. Granger.”  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never wanted to bash Ron.  
> I love Ron. My own personality is actually quite similar to Ron. (especially, in all the bad ways.)  
> But I also pictured him as a good man who didn't know how to properly love someone. That's it.
> 
> We're getting closer to Malfoy! Finally! I'd say, in two chapters, maybe?
> 
> By the way, I would really love to hear what you think about this story until now. I feel a tiny bit less alone here when I read your comments ! haha
> 
> ps: I keep going back between Hermione calling Blaise by his name and his surname. It's intentional.


	9. Le Chemin des Étoiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You'd think living under a viral crisis for the past few months would have left me with a lot of time to write but nah. 
> 
> It's getting juicy, my friends. Not long before the ferret appears. I can sense it.  
> I hope you are all safe, healthy and ready to...stay home and do social distancing?

She sees him standing a few meters away. Her heart beats so loud it feels like it is going to jump out of her chest. They lock eyes, their faces light up and she runs. She runs like she has never run. Not from fear or for survival but because she is happy: he’s alive and well. She runs and jumps in his arms. She is met with confusion, hesitation and then two strong arms lift her off the ground.

“So you beat the shit out of people you love now, Granger?” he whispers in her ear. She frowns then shrugged: “He deserved it.”

“It’s not like you, though, is it?

\- I guess not. Maybe it’s the new me.

\- I don’t know if I like the new you.”

Then, he’s gone.

Hermione woke up still out of breath, with a weird pain in her chest, her eyes stinging. “So now, we are dreaming about him, are we?” she grumbled, slamming her face into her pillow. One hour later, Hermione Granger was still in a weird mood. Yesterday’s events and that strange dream were making her question everything: herself, what she did, why. She found Harry sitting alone in the kitchen, staring blankly at his cup of coffee.

“ ‘Morning.

\- Slept well?

\- Nah. You?

\- weird dreams.

\- Eh.”

She sat down in front of him and summoned a cup from the cupboard. Harry summoned the coffee pot.

“ ‘Mione..

\- I know.

\- This is not like you..

\- Yeah, someone told me so.” she shuckled bitterly before taking a sip. Harry frowned “I didn’t know you went out after we came home yesterday.” She laughed. “I didn’t. Someone told me so in my dream.

\- Oh…” Harry stared at her as if she were a stranger.

“I need time, Harry.. I’ll apologize when I’m back.

\- Leaving is a good thing, then..isn’t it?

\- Yes.

\- I’d tell you that I want you to stay but I don’t want my nose to be broken so early in the morning.” They both stare at each other for a while in silent before snorting.

Saying goodbye to Harry was always bittersweet and more triggering than she thought it would. She knew now that, with Voldemort gone, Harry was not under any danger other than the ministry using him as a mascot for the reconstruction of the Ministry of Magic or his redhead of a fiancée suddenly realizing she didn’t love him after all those years of pinning for him in silence ( _“As if..”_ she thought to herself).

Still, she felt this fear creeping in her heart every time she had to leave him for more than a few days; the fear of losing him to yet another evil, to lose the only family she had. The first time she left, after the war, she had done so on a whim and hadn’t given herself the time to regret nor to panic over anything else but her destination. She also knew that the only obstacles she would meet were non-english speakers and overpriced tourist traps. Today, however, she was feeling like this new quest where so many things were unknown could potentially be the end for her and Harry. She could easily die or disappear like Malfoy did. She wasn’t afraid of dying but the idea of living a life without Harry made her heart ache. She already had lost so much, she wasn’t ready to lose him too.

“Are you having second thoughts?” Harry whispered in her ear as they hugged. She kept hugging him and answered “Maybe..” He hugged her with even more strength “Then I guess I’ll have to kick your butt out of the door.”

Surprised, she leaned back to stare at his face. Her handsome best friend was smiling, his beautiful green eyes sparkling with malice. “I thought I was welcome here but I guess not..” she frowned. He knocked lightly on her forehead with his knuckles and laughed: “Shut up. You know this house is as yours as it is mine. At least, soon.

\- As soon as I sign the papers..

\- Yup. Which you will do after you bring back the ferret to London.”

A few seconds of silent hugs went by before he added “Who would have thought I’d have to convince you to go on a terribly dangerous adventure to hunt a ferret?” while laughing. She in turn knocked on his forehead with her knuckles “Not hunt, save. Unless he annoys the hell out of me..in which case, I’ll make you a hat.” and they both laughed.

A portkey later, the reunited foursome landed in a small village at the foot of a mountain, somewhere in the Alps. They all thanked silently Merlin for getting ready for the winter weather as they all landed in a few feet of snow. The village was as beautiful as the ones you could find on muggle postcards. The wooden houses were already decorated for Christmas with lights and garlands of mistletoe hanging from the snow-covered roofs and windows. “A tad early for decorations, isn’t it?” groaned Pansy. “When I have children, Christmas decorations will be up from November to February.” blurted Blaise. Pansy stared at him for a while before slightly ducking her head and smiling, her cheeks pinker than before. “I read there was an Inn in this village. Let’s have breakfast before leaving. I am not ready yet for the upcoming days of canned food..” said Theo, looking at his map.

The inn “Le Pied de la Montagne” had a small restaurant on its first floor. As it was still early on a day that was promised to be very cold, few tables were occupied. They sat on one table right in front of the biggest window of the restaurant with an incomparable view of the mountain. “This is beautiful” breathed Hermione as they all stared quietly. “For now..I guess that, after a few days deep in the snow, we won’t love it as much.” groaned Pansy.

“Bonjour, Bonjour! Que puis-je faire pour vous?

\- Heh..Bonjour, nous voudrions le petit-déjeuner, s’il vous plaît.” Hermione tried her best to use her until now untouched french skills.

“Anglais?

\- Oui. Nous sommes anglais.

\- Then, I’ll do my best to speak l’anglais for you, dear. Welcome to “Le Pied de la Montagne”, the only Inn on this side of the mountain. I am Jeannine, the owner.” Jeannine seemed to be in her sixties, a round face with pink cheeks and dark round eyes that reminded Hermione of Professor Sprout. “Could you recommend anything? This is probably the only decent meal we’ll have today.

\- Oh, are you going on a hike?

\- Yes, we are.

\- Mais il fait froid ! It’s going to snow a lot, you know?

\- We’ll be fine.

\- Then let me get you our special breakfast.”

Jeannine came back fifteen minutes later as the group was looking at maps and copies of Malfoy’s drawings they had prepared in case they lost the notebook. As she put plates of hot bread, hams and cheeses, pots of jams, nutella and butter and a basket of fruits on the table, she saw the first clue which was an outline of the mountain with a red cross on the far right of the drawing. “Oh! you’re going to do “Le chemin des étoiles” ?

\- The what ?

\- The.. walk of the stars? I guess you could translate it like that.

\- Do you know where it is?

\- Of course I do, ma chérie!” she laughed at Pansy. “I have lived here for forty years. I fell in love with un homme des montagnes, you know! ” she giggled. “If you want to know anything, you should ask my husband.

\- Is he around? That would be helpful, merci beaucoup.” replied Theo, hopeful.

“Of course, dear. I’ll call him right away. Bon Appétit!” said the woman before leaving their table. As they were finishing their breakfast and asking for a refill of coffee and tea, a tall and large man, with a beard that could compete with Hagrid’s , approached their table. “Bonjour! You are the english who want to go to “Le chemin des étoiles”, oui?

\- Yes, Bonjour! We would love to have a bit of your time to ask some questions!” answered enthusiastically Hermione. “First time, eh?” asked the man as he sat down next to Pansy who now looked ridiculously tiny next to such a huge man. The young wizards all nodded modestly and he laughed. “So what do you want to do? besides “Le chemin des étoiles”? what’s your end goal?

\- Well, you see.. we have a weird hmm..” Hermione had no idea how to answer that question without sounding suspicious. As she searched for the right words, Blaise suddenly said “Game! it’s sort of a quest our friend made for us!”. They all nodded and smiled at the man who frowned for a second before asking: “What kind of game?”. Now that Hermione had a good excuse, she took upon herself to explain: “Our friend left us a few hints and we have to follow them for a prize.

\- Oh oh oh that is fun!” laughed heartily. He clapped his hands and said : “Show me the hints, I want to help!”

The first hint was the outline of the mountain that his wife had seen previously. “Your wife saw this and told us that the red cross was “Le chemin des étoiles”.

\- Oui, oui. It’s not very frequented though. People usually go halfway on summer nights to look at the stars, that’s where the name comes from, but I don’t remember anyone going until the end.

\- Why? is it dangerous or something?

\- Oh no, no! I don’t think so.. Now that I think about it, I don’t really know why..” the man suddenly seemed lost in his thoughts. Judging by the expression on his face, Hermione supposed that some confusion charm was involved. She looked at Theo who, by the looks of it, was thinking the same thing and nodded. Pansy looked at everyone; as all seemed lost in their thoughts, she pulled out a copy of the next hint and put it in front of the man: “What about this? Do you know where this is?” The man, who until then was staring in front of him blankly, blinked a few times, seemingly a bit startled, and looked at the hint. It was a drawing of the ruins of a house with mountains behind. He took it in his hands, took a look at the map of the mountain for a few seconds and then started to scribble on the map while rumbling: “hmm.. what a curious trajectory… Il y a rien à voir, là-bàs..nothing to see..” Once again, he seemed lost in his thoughts.

Annoyed, Pansy waved a hand in front of his face: “Sir..Monsieur!

\- Ah oui oui sorry, sorry.. I was just wondering why your friend would send you this way. It’s not the prettiest sight to see, you know.. Bad things happened in that house, some people say it’s haunted..

\- Haunted?

\- Oui, des fantômes! How do you say that in english...Ghosts!”

The four wizards looked at each other: While Theo and Hermione were surprised, Pansy and Blaise were snickering. “Monsieur, Ghosts..really??

\- Come on!

\- My boy, I never saw them but it has been a rumor for hundreds of years! As my maman used to say, do not tempt the devil! Are you sure you want to go, ladies?” Pansy puffed at the question. The french man looked at her and smiled “well, let me trace the road for you, then.” and so he did.

After a few minutes of silent scribbling, the man put his pencil down and asked “Any more hints? this is fun!” while rubbing his hands. Theo put the last remaining three hints in front of him. He stared at it for a while, frowning his eyebrows and then said: “Your friend is playing you.” while laughing.

Taken aback, Hermione asked “Playing us, sir ?

\- Well, I do know where Le pic de la Reine is but this bridge has been destroyed hundreds of years ago. I can tell you where it is but you will hardly be able to see it as only a few rocks are still standing and most of them are covered with greenery.

\- What about this tree? Is there such a tree in the mountain?

\- Well, trees, there’s lots of them, ma chère!” he chuckled. “However, this looks like a tree coming right of a children book. At this time of the year, you won’t find any tree in bloom up there…”

The three Slytherins looked at each other, perplexed by what the french man had just said. They seemed to question the veracity of these hints and wonder if Browne had lied to them but Hermione knew what this was about and decided that they didn’t need more help from the man. Smiling, she started to collect the copies that were laying in front of him and said: “Thank you so much for your help, I guess you’re right! Our friend is such a trickster!” She laughed. “We’ll hike until “le pic de la Reine” and come back down! Merci beaucoup!” She got up and extended a hand towards him. The man looked quite surprised but quickly stood up, shook Hermione and her friends’ hands while saying: “I am sorry I cannot be of more help! I hope you will have fun, still.. Au revoir, mes amis!” before tipping his hat and leaving the table.

“What do we do ? If those hints do not exist, we..

\- Think a bit, would you?” snapped Hermione. Raising his eyebrows, Blaise waited for her to calm down and explain. “Come on, why would a muggle think this hints do not exist? think!

\- I don’t know, maybe they’re fake?

\- Merlin, here I thought you were smart..

\- OH!” Blaise face palmed and laughed. “It’s hidden with magic, isn’t it?” Hermione laughed and clapped.

The foursome laughed heartily until tears came to their eyes. Wiping his tears away, “I can’t believe I forgot about magic.. Granger is influencing all of us..

\- Hey! Not my fault!” laughed Hermione. Theo then said “I guess it’s another reason why Draco wanted you here.” and his Slytherin friends nodded, smiling. Hermione blushed and tried to keep herself busy, rearranging all the papers on the table while the others stared at her. “Blamey..it’s already 11! I’ll ask Jeannine for some sandwiches and water bottles so we can go right away.”

Half an hour later, Hermione, Theo, Pansy and Blaise were saying goodbye to the innkeeper who had insisted on dropping them out right at the beginning of “Le Chemin des Étoiles”. As soon as they got out of the van, the wizards took a deep breath in. The snow was crunchy, the air fresh and the sky blue but a few dark clouds could be seen coming. “You should be careful later in the day, those clouds could be nothing but.. we never know, here in the mountains..” had said the innkeeper before leaving them.

The four of them stood in silence in front of a road sign marking the beginning of the walk of the stars. “Well..time to walk.” said Pansy and so they walked and walked for hours, mostly in silence, taking in the beautiful scenery and the fresh air.

While the Slytherins walked in front of her, exchanging snarky remarks and dissing each other as good Slytherins would, Hermione had lost herself for hours inside her own mind, trying to remember chapters of her favorite books so she wouldn’t feel her legs getting tired as the road became more and more stiff. As she tried to remember an excerpt about the origins of the prefect bathrooms in “Hogwarts: A History”, she felt someone nudging her shoulder.

As she looked on her right, Theo smiled at her then, with a mischievous look:

“You know, I had a funny dream last night..

\- Hmm, hmm..

\- Not curious about it? your indifference hurts my feelings..

\- Spit it out, Nott..

\- Nott ? I feel like we’re going backwards..Granger.”

Raising her eyebrows, she looked in his direction to find a smirk on his face. _“I have seen this smirk before..on someone else’s face..”_ she thought to herself.

“Well? Are you going to tell me or should I beg you?” she spat. He bowed towards her, cleared his throat and said: “Once upon a..well.. a dream, I was with a girl in a bathroom and we were very, very close.. like..

\- like what?

\- like this!” he hold two fingers very close to each other. “And our face were even closer.”

Hermione was beginning to sweat. _“You sneaky bastard, you said you didn’t remember anything..”_ she wanted to scream. She could feel him staring at her but she was resolved to not look at him at all.

As silence was beginning to weight on her shoulders, she tried to laugh it off and asked “Did you get your happy ending?”. He scoffed and took an innocent air before replying: “Well, funny thing is, my dream suddenly changed to a bed scene. I was on top of her and..

\- Theodore Nott, I do not want to hear about your wet dreams!

\- Hermione Granger, would you be, by any chance...jealous ?”

Sweat ran down Hermione’s forehead. She chose drama as defense mechanism and she put both of her hands on her chest, pretending to be shocked: “You saw right through me! My heart hurts at the idea of you and another woman!” She laughed and so did Theo while running his fingers through his hair before replying quietly: “Seeing you being able to joke about it so easily is weirdly making me sad..” Disconcerted, Hermione asked with a small voice: “What do you want from me, then?” Theo stopped walking and said “I don’t know..it didn’t feel like a dream.. more like memories, you know? so...maybe the truth?..”

Hermione didn’t know what to say. Was she about to tell him about what happened in Macau, not knowing if she was ready for anything that would come from it or was she going to keep on lying about everything, including the weird way Theo sometimes made her feel ? She knew she was attracted to him but it also felt very wrong. After Ron, she had promised herself to not settle for anything else but true love _“If such thing exists..”._ Once again, she also had to remind herself that all of this was temporary: once they'd find Malfoy, all would go their separate ways and probably never see each other again. She wasn't here to start any romance; she was here to help. 

A small smile on his face, Theo asked again: “So?..”.

Hermione looked at her feet, kicked a small rock in front of her: “I think we’re too busy for the truth, Nott.” And with that said, she started walking faster to catch up with Pansy and Blaise.

As they walked in silence, the sun began to go down and it started to get colder. The weather was getting really bad, really quickly. Shivering, Blaise thought out loud “Let’s at least get to the ruins before we stop..come on.”

The more they went up the mountain, the worse the weather was getting. The snow and the wind made them pretty much blind and not even magic could help them find their way so they walked, head down, looking at their feet, following the trail. Hermione’s ears were hurting so much from the cold and the wind that she could hardly hear the others talking. The weather also affected her sight as the wind made her eyes tear up so much that she could almost feel the tears freezing down her cheeks. They kept walking in what seemed to be a snow storm for what seemed an eternity before Pansy screamed “I think I see it!”.

As she lifted her head up to look at where Pansy was pointing, Hermione didn’t see a rather large rock in the middle of the trail and fell on it. She felt the skin on her knee rip as soon as it touched down and let out a scream. As she fell to the ground, her vision went dark and silence was all she could hear.

“Hermione!” a very distant voice screamed.

“Granger..get up..Granger..” another voice, this time way closer to her, was whispering in her ear.

 _“I know that voice..”_ she thought before she fainted. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So our foursome is on their way to the realm! Exciting!!  
> Also Theo is a sneaky bastard..That bitch remembers, I'm telling you. 
> 
> I really want to hear your opinion, how you think it's going to go from here on.  
> Tell me things, people !
> 
> Thanks for the support, as always.  
> Be safe.


	10. Found Voices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi babes,  
> I'll be honest with you: I'm struggling with the plot quite a bit.  
> It's taken a turn I wasn't planning on but hey..let's see where it leads us!   
> As always, big thanks for the bookmarks, comments and kudos.   
> It's nice to see people read your shit.

_“Granger..get up.. Granger..”_

The voice kept on sounding further and further away.

As she finally opened her eyes, she could see Theo standing over her, shaking her shoulders. Trying to get up, she suddenly felt his arms around her waist helping her. Once standing up, they both realized she wouldn’t be able to walk so Theo held her in his arms and they braved the last few hundred meters until the ruins of the house they had seen in Malfoy’s journal.

Inside, they realized that the ruins were pretty much four walls standing on their own with much of the roof and the windows gone. The noise of the storm and the pain in her knee was making her head spin. She didn’t know if she was having a panic attack or if her knee was in a worse state than expected. Her brain still fuzzy, she couldn’t hear her companions talk but she could feel them touching her knee. Quickly, she felt tremendous heat on her knee and screamed from the pain.

“I can see her fucking bone!

\- What do we do?

\- let me try something... move, assholes!”

She could hardly see Pansy squat down next to her leg but she could hear her mutter spells. The pain was so strong that Hermione kept going in and out of consciousness for a while. When she woke up again, her leg didn’t hurt as much as it did before. Trying to concentrate, she looked at it and saw that it was as good as new but the floor below it was tainted with way more blood than Hermione had anticipated. As she tried to bend her knee, the pain was still present but she was now able to move it without screaming. “hmm..Thanks..” she muttered, squeezing the other witch's arm. Pansy shrugged: “No problem.. I know a few things..I had to fix up a few times the boys after their fathers..anyway..”.

One more look at the blood on the floor and she got up quickly right before Blaise came running towards Hermione: “Hermione! Where is the tent? did you forget it? I can’t find it! It couldn’t fit in any of our bags so where the fuck is..

\- bag..give me my bag.” Hermione groaned. Pansy quickly retrieved the purple beaded bag and gave it to her. “Why do you need your bag? it’s so small, i don’t think anyth..

\- shh..” Hermione replied, her eyes still half-closed, before putting her whole arm inside, up to the shoulder. “I am more of a witch than you three..” she half-groaned, half-laughed before deciding to simply use her wand: “Accio tent!”.

Out of the bag came flying a much bigger and longer one. Surprised, the three Slytherins looked at her, at the beaded bag and then at the tent bag on the floor with their mouths slightly open. Amused, Hermione asked “Undetectable Extension charm..rings a bell?

\- Oooooooh..

\- Isn’t it illegal or something?” asked Blaise, a mischievous smile on his face. “I’ve been using this bag for years and it saved Harry Potter on countless times so let them come at me for that..” she shrugged.

A few minutes later, the four wizards found themselves in front of a tiny beige tent. None of them knew what it looked like inside: it could either be one of the spacious wizards tents or simply a minuscule muggle tent. “It’s..tiny.

\- It will be better inside, I guess.

\- Anything better than this weather. We’ll die outside.”

As they found themselves inside, Hermione realized that it was indeed a wizard tent but way smaller than the ones the Weasley family had used during the World Cup. This one only had two single mattresses, a table that could sit four and a small fireplace.

“Damn.. the ministry could have given us something more..

\- Clean ?

\- Spacious?

\- They were already nice enough to lend it to us, come on.” Hermione managed to find two large sleeping bags in her bag and the Everburning Wood from George’s shop. She instructed the boys to go outside and check that the tent was secure on the floor while she began to make a fire. Standing by her side, Pansy seemed annoyed about something and kept frowning. “I can hear your brain working, Pansy..” chuckled Hermione while putting the fire inside the fireplace. “It’s just..we have two single mattresses and two sleeping bags. I think we have to sleep together.. like really close.” Hermione looked at her, at the beds and laughed: “I guess so.. Are you worried my tainted blood will make you sick?

\- Granger, don’t..

\- “Granger don’t” what?” asked Blaise as the boys came back inside the tent. “Granger was reminding me of how much of an asshole I was and how I deserve to be dead.

\- Pansy, I didn’t say that..

\- Girls, girls, girls.. let’s not, shall we?” sang Blaise while putting an arm over each of the girls’ shoulders. “There’s also the sleeping problem. We’ll have to sleep by pairs inside the sleeping bags.

\- I’ll sleep on the floor.” replied Theo right away, visibly uncomfortable. “You’ll freeze to death.” replied automatically Pansy. Blaise frowned then, all of the sudden, his face light up: “Me and Theo will never fit inside one sleeping bag together which means..” and he winked at Pansy who snorted in return. “We can sleep together inside anything you want, you’ll never touch me, you perv.

\- We’ll see about that!” Blaise replied before blowing her a kiss. Both laughing, they took their bags towards one of the mattresses.

The fire lit, Hermione realized that, once again, she was alone with Theo who seemed even more uncomfortable than before. “Theo..

\- I’ll sleep on the floor, here in front of the fireplace, no worries..

\- Shut up. I’m used to sleep with Harry and Ron, anyways..” she replied before throwing a bag at his chest. “Come on.” As they approached the mattresses, Blaise and Pansy were stripping down to their underwear. “Body heat is the best heat.” explained Blaise with a wink. “And if we put our clothes on the chairs in front of the fireplace, they’ll be toasty warm for tomorrow.”

Both embarrassed, Hermione and Theo began to also strip, put their clothes as instructed by the fireplace and came back to the mattress. “Hmm.. how should we do that?” asked Hermione, crossing both of her arms on her chest. Theo scratched vigorously his head before opening the sleeping bag and saying: “I’ll get in first and you’ll just have to, you know..

\- Yup. Big spoon, little spoon. Understood.”

Once Theo lied down, Hermione closed her eyes and quickly got inside the sleeping bag before any weird thoughts came to her mind. As she laid down, she felt Theo’s warm torso against her back. “Is it okay if I…?” he asked before moving his arm forward. “I guess not.” she replied coldly. Theo wrapped his left arm around her stomach and put his head near her neck. He chuckled and said “your hair makes quite a nice pillow..” The way he laughed made her feel his breath against her neck and slowly, goosebumps were appearing all over her body. Embarrassed, she simply ignored him and tried to concentrate on her breathing which was getting quicker every time he moved.

On their left, she suddenly heard a snort: “Theo, remember when we had that can of chili that was out of date and..

\- Shut up. Don’t you dare.” Theo tensed up against her. Blaise started laughing and quickly, Pansy began to ask questions: “When was that? What happened?

\- When we were on the run last year. We had gone days without eating and we accidentally found some cans of food at an abandoned camping site.

\- and ?

\- Shut up or I’ll kill everyone you love.

\- I want to know!”

Silent, Hermione just listened to the Slytherins bickering in the dark, slowly feeling more at ease in Theo’s arms. It was comfortable and quite pleasant, like a nice hot bath at the end of a day of hard work. He smelt like lemons and grapefruits, with a hint of mint. She didn’t feel like she wanted to stay here forever but she didn’t mind it for now.

“Well, let’s just say that I had to go buy some new trousers for Sir Nott in a muggle neighborhood..” A laugh came out of Hermione’s mouth without her knowing and was soon joined by Pansy and Blaise’s. She felt Theo’s arms leave her stomach which made her stop laughing: “Oh don’t stop laughing on my account. You are all having so much fun..” Theo groaned in her ear. The young witch chuckled and whispered “I’m sorry”. The wizard tightened his grasp on her who, once again covered in goosebumps, tried to find a logical explanation _“Cold. Because of the cold, for sure..”_ she thought. The feeling of Theo’s breath on her neck made it difficult for Hermione to think straight. As the conversation went on, Hermione suddenly found herself talking before thinking whether her question was appropriate: “Did you..did you guys..

\- Ask away, Granger. I’m sure you have a lot of questions.

\- It's Granger, of course she does.

\- I was just wondering..why did you guys run? I thought you were safe on his side..

\- As soon as we both declined the offer to join his ranks, we were as welcomed as you were.

\- You could decline to join him ?” asked Hermione, surprised by Blaise’s answer. The three Slytherins became silent.

“What did you think would happen if we rejected him?

\- Well, I..thought you’d..

\- die?

\- yes.

\- If we kept rejecting him but still lived at home and attended school, maybe..For us, everything went to shit when I realized I didn’t want to follow in my father’s footsteps..

\- I don’t have a father and my mother was fucking pretty much all the death eaters so…

\- so you ran? the both of you?

\- Yup..We tried to get Draco and Pansy to come with us but..”

It was weird to hear them talk about the war: she knew there had been victims on both sides but it was the first time outside of a courtroom that Hermione was hearing about the hardships of people related to the dark side. She had heard Narcissa and Draco Malfoy’s testimonies during their trials a few months ago but she remembered it being very mechanical and the questions asked by the jury did not let them express their emotions, regrets or hopes. Pansy coughed and replied “Well, I had my own corner of Hell to deal with. and so did Draco.” with a tone that meant that she was done with whatever this was. Hermione heard Blaise throw a Silencio spell all around their mattress, just in time for Pansy’s cries to be silenced. Hermione whispered “I..i’m.. Shh..try to sleep.” whispered Theo before hugging her from behind.

The next day, Hermione woke up to see Blaise and Pansy’s mattress empty. She could hear them talk outside the tent. Theo was still fully asleep, his arms still around Hermione, his head now against her own. Slowly, trying to not wake him up, she began to disentangle herself from his arms. He groaned and tightened his grasp around her: “Hmm..Just a little bit more.. I need to.. Ten more minutes and then you can go back to pretending to hate me..” he sleepily mumbled before falling asleep right away, his lips too close to her neck for her own liking. So she waited. She listened to his breathing for a while until her stomach growled with hunger. This time, she successfully managed to get out of the sleeping bag without waking him up. As she dressed herself to brace the outside cold, she stared at his face. “You’re one hell of a confusing man, Theodore Nott..” she whispered before leaving the tent.

As she stepped outside the ruins, she stopped for a second and closed her eyes to feel the sun on her face. Yesterday’s storm had left behind a layer of fresh snow on the floor but the weather felt like spring. As she looked around, Hermione saw Blaise and Pansy sat on a tree stump. Blaise had an arm around the witch while she had her head on his shoulder. Both had a steaming cup of coffee in their hand and were laughing at something Pansy had just said.

Hermione was debating on whether she should go back inside to let them have some privacy when Blaise looked at her and said “Morning, Granger. Slept well?”. As soon as he said her name, Pansy jumped out of Blaise embrace and drank coffee so fast that she almost choked on it. “Didn’t mean to intrude, sorry..” apologized Hermione. Pansy got up, shook off the snow from her trousers and walked away towards the ruin. As she heard the zipper of the tent being open, Hermione approached Blaise who was still sitting on the stump, staring at the view in front of them: “I’m sorry, I didn’t..

\- Don’t. She does that with everybody.

\- Are you guys..

\- Together? I don’t know. Ask her. I know as much as you do.” shrugged Blaise, a sad smile on his face. Hermione was looking for something else to say but was interrupted with a steaming cup of coffee appearing in front of her. “Morning.” whispered Theo as he gave her the cup. “Did I snore?

\- No. Did I ?

\- A bit.” smirked Theo. “We have around five hours of walking ahead of us towards “le Pic de la Reine”. We should have a good breakfast so we’ll just have some of those meal gums on the way.” said Blaise before going back inside.

An hour later, tents and bags were packed and the foursome was back on the road. The map along with the Innkeepers’ annotations could only help them so far so Pansy and Theo were using their wands as compasses to guide them. They walked in silence for a few hours, all lost in their own thoughts. Hermione kept thinking about the voice that she had heard the day before.

“Blaise, did I hallucinate yesterday when I was still hurt?” Her new friend stopped for a second, looked up in the sky and then answered: “Nope. Don’t think so. You didn’t say a lot, to be honest..why?” She frowned and then asked: “Did you or Theo tell me to get up?

\- Even if we did, you wouldn’t have been able to hear it! The storm was deafening, I could hardly hear Pansy and she was right next to me so I doubt you heard anything.

\- Hmm..I see.”

 _“So I did hallucinate.”_ She thought to herself. The voice was the voice of someone, a man she knew but she couldn’t pinpoint who it was. She was now sure, however, that it wasn’t Theo’s nor Blaise’s as it felt like a whisper _“_ but inside my brain..” she thought out loud. Blaise, still walking next to her, looked at her with surprise: “Inside your brain?

\- Huh? It’s nothing.

\- No, no!” laughed Blaise, linking his arm with hers. “You’re not getting away with incomplete sentences this time. I thought you, Hermione Granger, the Golden Girl and brightest witch of our time, would be more articulate than that. What’s inside your brain, Hermione?

\- I..I thought I heard someone call my name yesterday when I fell, that’s it.” She wanted to leave the conversation at that but her tall, dark and handsome companion was getting more and more intrigued. “So you think you heard a voice tell you to get up in your head? and you think it’s a man? someone you know?” Her mouth slightly open, she stuttered: “How..?” to which Blaise laughed and tapped the side of his forehead with his finger, saying: “You’re not the only one with brains here. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I guess your brain’s defense mechanism just made you hear either the Pothead or the Weasel’s voice so you wouldn’t freeze to death.

\- That’s the thing.” she frowned. “It wasn’t Harry or Ron’s voice. Someone else at school but I can’t remember who it was.

\- Who, besides them, would you have a strong connection with?

\- Well, maybe Neville? but it wasn't him so.. nobody.

\- For now. My great-aunt would tell me tales of soulmates being mentally connected so if this crap is true, maybe it’s your future husband telling you to get the fuck up. Who knows?” he laughed before putting his arm around her shoulders. “I’ll take care of you until then.” Hermione snorted at the last sentence, took his arm off her shoulders and replied “I don’t need to be taken care of but thanks.”

As they kept walking towards the east, she kept thinking about what Blaise had just said. The young witch almost wished she had access to the Hogwarts library to research if such thing is true or not. She liked the idea of soulmates; the thought that every single person on this earth had another half that fitted perfectly with them was reassuring idea for Hermione Granger as she saw herself as someone so damaged that no one in their right mind would want to be with her. However, she liked freedom of choice so the idea of people’s lives having only one outcome, no matter if they like it or not, was also somewhat suffocating for her.

Way past midday, the group found themselves on some sort of a cliff. Pansy’s wand was telling them to go straight to their death so they got out some muggle map to check. While Pansy and Theo were preoccupied with the map, Hermione sat down on a rock to rest a bit as her leg was still hurting. “Are you going to stick by me all day long, Zabini?” she groaned, her eyes closed and her face lifted towards the sun, as she heard someone sit right next to her. “Well my beloved is trying to find a way out of this cliff so I guess i’ll stick to the second prettiest person here.” After a few seconds of silence, he added “Well, third. After me.” looking satisfied with his ranking.

“You know what? I was thinking about you hearing voices and it reminded me of Draco.

\- In which sense?

\- You know how the Dark Lord asked him to kill Dumbledore but then he didn’t?

\- Yes.

\- Well, a few weeks before he left, we were very, very drunk and he pretty much admitted that he heard a voice telling him not to do it when he had his wand pointed at Dumbledore. So he didn’t. He kept saying that the voice saved the last shred of humanity he had in him and that, if he had killed him that night in the Astronomy tower, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

\- That doesn’t mean anything, Malfoy might have had experience a few seconds of decency for the first time in his whole entire life or maybe, just maybe, he was tired of being the little git he is. Muggles sometimes think they hear voices and attribute it their gods or angels when, in fact, they’re just doing what they want, deep inside.

\- Yeah, I know, I’m just saying that maybe that’s what happened to you too.

\- Yeah, well, nothing to do with Malfoy.” she got up, wincing from the pain, and walked towards Pansy and Theo who were still looking at the map.

“Need help?

\- Blaise already annoyed the shit out of you, I see.

\- Are we going to stay on this cliff forever?

\- No. Look at that. I think we need to go there.” answered Theo, pointing a mountain in front of them.

Between them was the cliff and a rather vast and dense forest. “Please, don’t tell me we have to go through that.

\- Well, look at the drawing and look at that mountain. It’s the same!

\- We need to get down of this cliff, go through this forest and I guess Draco will be there.”

On their right, they could see a small path on the side of the cliff that seemed to go down, towards the forest. “Should we try to apparate down? That would save us a lot of walking.

\- I don’t know.. I have never apparated to a place I haven’t been before.

\- Technically, you can see it from here. Let’s apparate right in front of it, there.” Pansy pointed at the end of a path, right before the beginning of the forest.

“I’ll side apparate you. I don’t want you to get hurt again.” and so she did.

When Hermione opened her eyes again, Pansy and her were at the bottom of the cliff. Looking up, she could see the boys waving at them before disapparating to apparate right next to her. “I wish we could just apparate to wherever the hell Draco is.” groaned Pansy to which Hermione answered by awkwardly patting her arm. The forest in front of them made them think of Hogwarts’ forbidden forest: they couldn’t see anything past a few meters ahead of them as the foliage of the trees was so lush that hardly any sunlight could go through. Hermione was the first one to take a few steps inside the forest and, as soon as she did, a strange force went through her whole body, making her shiver. “This is.. magic.” whispered Pansy who had followed her. “Yup.

\- This isn’t just a forest.

\- Something’s here.” The foursome stood in silence, looking around for a while before Blaise asked: “What should we do? Do you want to wait for tomorrow or shall we keep walking?

\- The sun is almost down.

\- I don’t think any sunlight shines here during the day anyways.. Let’s walk until we find some sort of clearing.”

As they walked in pairs, the girls first and the boys after them, Hermione felt like eyes were on her, as if they were not alone in this otherwise very silent forest: “I feel weird.. I feel like we’re being watched.” whispered Pansy. Hermione nodded in silence.

A few hours after, Hermione’s leg was hurting so bad that she was pretty much dragging it along so she was rather happy to finally see a clearing ahead of them. “Let’s set the tent here for the night. I can’t walk further.” she announced to the others. “I think we should sleep in turns. I don’t believe it is wise for us to all sleep in this place.

\- Yeah, I guess you’re right.

\- I’ll take the first turn.” said Hermione, setting fire to a bit of Everburning wood in front of her so she could warm up.

While Pansy and Blaise thanked her and got inside the tent, Theo looked worried: “Are you sure? You should rest..

\- I’m resting. I won’t move from here, don’t worry. I’ll wake someone up in a few hours.” Theo seemed to hesitate a bit before nodding and going inside.

Hermione casted a warming charm to her coat and boots and sat on a rock in front of the tent. She looked for Malfoy’s journal and a pen inside her bag. Making herself as comfortable as possible, she began to write:

_“Day..25? No, it must be more than that..I have no idea._ _We are halfway through the hints and it feels like we are getting closer to you. I heard your voice, yesterday. Today, I kept trying to convince myself that it wasn’t yours but I believe it was. Am I losing my mind? Ron would say so. I could be anywhere I want to be. By now, I should have been in Egypt. That was one of the following places I wanted to go after Praha. Maybe I would have gone home for Christmas, who knows.. The idea of a home sounds so far-fetched for me, with all that happened, all that we have lost. What would be home for me now? Grimmauld Place? The Burrow? One thing is certain, I can’t go back to where I grew up. I think that the emptiness of that place would destroy me if I were to settle there. I might sell it, or what is left of it, after all of this. I wonder if you feel the same about the Manor. Without your parents there, will you still call it home? I don’t know if what makes a home are walls or the people anymore.”_

She kept writing, trying to put her thoughts into words. She found it weirdly freeing to write to her nemesis, her bully. She knew that he thought of her so badly that anything she could write wouldn’t make a difference. “It’s not like he’s ever going to read this, anyways..” she whispered to herself.

Closing the journal and dropping it on her knees, she stared at the vast forest in front of her for a while. Fireflies-like insects were flying a few meters away from her, shining brightly through the trees. _“It’s too cold for Fireflies..”_ she thought to herself as she drew her wand. The fireflies slowly flew towards each other and formed a bigger light. That light began to grow and soon, it took the form of a living thing. At first, Hermione thought it to be a Patronus but it slowly began to resemble a human being. Tall and lean, it stood a few meters away. Mesmerized, the witch didn’t move an inch and kept on staring at it. “You’re close..Granger..Close.” “What?” she blurted out loud. This time, she recognized the voice. She couldn’t explain it but she knew it was his. The light emanating from it was getting so bright that it was hard for her to keep her eyes open.

_“Follow the water.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've started working so I guess my uploading schedule will now be more regular haha  
> Thank you for the very few but very lovely comments and the lots of kudos!   
> Be safe. x


	11. Heavy Stones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing has been difficult lately.   
> Adulting and death fuck shit up, you know.  
> This is short but heavy.   
> Hope you like it.

The next time Hermione opened her eyes, she was being shaken awake by Theo: “Hey, you fell asleep. Go inside, I’ll stand watch.”

The patronus was nowhere to be seen and the witch wondered if it had been a dream. Something inside her told her that it wasn’t. Quickly standing up without saying anything, she approached the place where she had seen the patronus-like form the night before.

“Revelio” Nothing happened.

“Revelio….Revelio…Revelio!!

\- Hermione, what are you doing?”

Theo had silently approached and was now standing right behind her. Frowning, Hermione kept staring in front of her and said: “I saw something here.

\- When?

\- Last night, when I was keeping watch.” Theo stood behind her and shuckled. Offended, the witch turned towards him, her hands on her hips and asked him: “Theodore Nott, are you laughing at me right now?” His eyes opened widely for a second before he smiled and got closer to her, ruffled her hair and said, his hand still on her head: “Would I be brave enough to make fun of the almighty Hermione Granger?

\- Brave or stupid, i don’t care. Don’t ask me if you don’t really want to know.” she replied coldly. He put his hand on her arm and, with a small and sorry voice, asked: “could you tell me what happened? I won’t laugh..” After a few seconds of inner debating on whether she should or not, she did. “..and then I woke up to see your..

\- beautiful face.”

She hit the back of his head. He laughed. “Sorry, sorry. Well, whatever it was, it was nothing Revelio could reveal to us. And we knew, coming into this forest, that we’d see things that we wouldn’t understand. Let’s not lose our minds right away and yes...why not trying to follow the water if nothing else appears..

\- Nothing else? like what?

\- I don’t know.. A fairy, a flying unicorn, Merlin, Dumbledore back from the dead…” Hermione slowly crouched on the floor, grabbed a handful of fallen tree leaves and threw it at his face. “No. You didn’t.” He grabbed an even bigger handful with both hands and put it right on her head. “Nooo! It’s going to get stuck to my hair!” Hermione cried. Laughing until their sides hurt, they kept throwing leaves to each other to the point that they tried to stop each other by grabbing each other’s arms and other body parts.

As Hermione was about to run away, she tripped on a branch. While falling, she grabbed Theo by his coat and he fell on top of her. Both suddenly very silent just stared into each other eyes, Hermione’s fingers still holding tightly on Theo’s coat. Both hands on each side of her head, Theo slowly held one up and started taking out of the witch’s hair small leaves and pieces of wood without saying a word. The wizard’s face then began to get closer, closer and closer to Hermione’s who still didn’t know if she wanted all of this to happen.

As she was about to close her eyes, she saw from the corner of her left eye something move on the floor. She turned her head and saw something white slither quickly towards them. “THEO! Get up! ” she screamed before pushing him away and jumping on her two feet. “What the..” began Theo before he saw what she was talking about. He slowly approached it, Hermione hiding behind his back, tugging at his arm. “How the…

\- What? It’s a snake. Oh..is it poisonous? we should go befo..

\- No. It’s a Dragon Snake. Not poisonous.” Theo’s face hardened and, after staring at the snake for a while, he silently grabbed Hermione’s hand. He was holding on to it so tightly that Hermione’s knuckles were turning white.

“Theo..

\- What..

\- My hand..” He didn’t lessen his grasp. Hermione could see that the wizard was deeply unsettled by the sight of this snake but she couldn’t understand why. After all, they were standing in one of the deepest forests she’d ever seen. The flora and fauna of this place seemed to have been unchanged and unaffected by the outside world. Even the weather was different: while it had heavily snowed for the past few days, there was no sign of snow on these green trees. Annoyed at the wizard and starting to feel a bit claustrophobic, she snatched her hand out of his. The snake hissed one more time and quickly slithered away towards bushes.

“Theo! I told you to let go! I don’t need you to..

\- A Dragon Snake.

\- Huh? yes, I know. So what? We’re in the middle of a forest. Of course, there will be snakes.

\- Not this one. They can only be found in Southeast Asia.

\- Oh, I see. Maybe a muggle smuggled it in the country but threw it away here. Muggles often leave their pets on the border of roads, in forests, in the mount..

\- White dragon snakes do not exist.”

Hermione who, halfway through this weird conversation, had decided it was time to go inside the tent and stop whatever this was, stopped in her tracks and looked back at Theo.

“Do you think it’s another of those weird visions?

\- Maybe.”

He kept staring at the floor where the snake was, not moving an inch as if he was frozen in time. For some reason, Theodore Nott had been deeply troubled by the sight of this insignificant creature. Silently walking back towards him, Hermione put a hand on his arm and chuckled: “So not all Slytherins are big fans of snakes, huh?” Theo smirked and finally looked at her. “Not all Gryffindors are courageous either. Weren’t you supposed to save me or something ?” Laughing, she was about to hit him on the back of his head when he grabbed both of her arms by the wrists and pulled her against him. “I guess we’re not always what we seem to be.

\- What do you mean?

\- Well, I’m not a death eater snake and you are not the courageous Gryffindor princess they think you are.

\- I am courageous!” Hermione cried, slightly offended, trying to free herself as she backed away. Tightening his grasp on her wrists, Theo took another step towards her and whispered: “You aren’t. Not when it comes to us.”

Hermione could have sworn they had stared at each other for what felt like a million years before they heard a cough.

“Hmm.. I don’t want to interrupt whatever this is but we should go.” said Blaise, with a surprisingly lifeless tone.

Finally free from Theo, she hurried back inside to get a Pepper-Up potion but also to get away from the wizard.

They walked in total silence for hours, passing by countless trees, not a single animal in sight. While Theo and Blaise walked behind, Pansy kept walking next to her in silence. On numerous occasions, she had looked back towards the boys as Theo’s stare felt like it could easily burn a hole through her brain. However, she quickly understood that she wasn’t the only one being stared at. A constant frown on his face, Blaise kept his eyes locked on the back of Pansy’s head while the witch didn’t seem to want to give him any attention today.

She whispered to Pansy : “I see i’m not the only one avoiding someone..

\- Shut up, Granger.” was the only answer she got from the petite but scary witch.

After another half an hour of complete silence, Hermione was starting to have a feeling of deja-vu. It started to feel like they were walking in circles. She was about to say something when Blaise stopped walking and said: “That’s it.

\- What?

\- We’re walking in circles.

\- WHAT?” yelled Pansy. “ What the hell are you talking about ?

\- We can’t be walking in circles, come on man!

\- Actually, he might be..

\- This tree.” Blaise pointed at a random tree on his right. “This tree has one single orange leaf. Look at the other trees. They’re all perfectly green, almost..

\- identical.” groaned Hermione, kicking a stone on the floor.

“I can’t believe no one saw it! I did!” retorted Blaise.

“So.. What do we do now?” Pansy took her wand out of her pocket and began to use it as a compass. The wand kept going in circles on the palm of her hand. “Well, we’re fucked.” she simply announced.

All of the sudden, Theo and Hermione looked at each other and said at the same time: “The water.” before they frantically started looking around. “Can someone explain what the fuck is going on?” politely asked Pansy, both hands on each side of her waist. Hermione began telling the other two companions what had happened last night and this morning, sometimes interrupted by Theo who wanted to add some of his own thoughts. “Sooo.. You’re hallucinating. Great.” concluded Pansy, face-palming.

“I don’t think so, Pans. I think we’re getting closer to Draco and for some reason that I don’t understand it, I think she’s the only one who can find him. The whole forest and the magic residing in it seems to know it.

\- So...we follow the water ?” loudly asked Blaise, standing quite far away from the rest. “What are you..

\- Found it.” he said before pointing at his feet. As they followed the stream, it began to get larger and larger until it slowly becomes a creek. Finally, they reach a river where the current of the water is so strong that it could be dangerous to go through.

As they look around them, there is no way for them to go across the river. “We’re supposed to find remains of a bridge, right? Wouldn’t it be the perfect place for it?” asked Theo. Hermione nodded and all began to look out for it. After a few minutes of silent search, Blaise, who had gone up the river, called out the others: “Found something!” The wizard indeed had found a few big stones who seemed to be the remaining of the fairy bridge. All that remained was the first two steps and nothing else.

“Reparo.” Blaise pointed his wand at the bridge. Pansy started to clap ironically and asked, a surprised expression on her face: “After all we’ve been through, did you really think this would work?

\- I don’t know! At least I tried! YOU try! Show us how it’s done! since you’re the only one who knows what’s best for us..” yelled back Blaise before stopping himself, looking quite embarrassed. Before Pansy could answer, Theo began to try out some other spells such as “Finite Incantatem” before Hermione quickly followed him. “Wingardium Leviosa” she pointed her wand at the water. A few blocks of stones began to fly out of the river but fell down right away. Theo looked at Hermione and asked “Let’s try “Revelio” together? might need more strength.” Hermione nodded and, as she was getting ready to cast the spell, she felt Pansy and Blaise stand besides them, pulling out their wands too.

“One..Two..Three..Revelio.

\- Revelio.

\- Revelio.

\- Revelio.”

At first, nothing seemed to be happening but when Pansy gasped, Hermione realized that the first step of the bridge was now glowing. “There’s something written on it!” The wizards could see glowing words forming on the stone:

**_“Crossing together, you won’t if on opposite sides, you are.”_ **

“We’re all standing on the same side though.

\- What the..”

An hour later, they were all sitting on rocks, trying to decipher the sentence. “From a geographical point, we’re all standing on the same sides. That we know.

\- Do you think it has a deeper meaning?

\- I don’t know. what do you think, Blaise?

\- Oh, Granger. Don’t ask me.” snapped Blaise who was throwing little rocks in the water. “Dude, what’s wrong with you? It’s not the right time for you to be moody." asked Theo. "Leave him be, he’s being a little bitch.” groaned Pansy while inspecting for the hundredth time the remains of the bridge. A harsh, cold laugh came out of Blaise’s mouth: “Yes, I’m being a bitch and you’re a selfish, controlling witch!” Both were now standing up, staring at each other from a distance, with Theo and Hermione sat in the middle. “Who cares what I want, uh? If the almighty Pansy Parkinson doesn’t agree, then it’s wrong, right?” Theo quickly got up and, putting a hand on Blaise’s chest to stop him. “Dude..stop.”

Searching for a book about revealing and inspecting spells in her bag, Hermione groaned “As if this was the right time for couple quarrels..for fuck’s sake..”

Blaise and Pansy yelled at the same time: “We’re not a couple!”

Surprised, Hermione looked at Theo who just shrugged. “Well, make up your mind because I’m not here to listen to you fight. We have work to do. All of us, together.” as she said that, a stone from the bridge flew out of the water and reattached itself to the bridge on the other side of the river. “That’s it!” clapped Theo enthusiastically. “You guys fought. We are pure-bloods and she’s a muggle-born. We’re not on the same side!” The other wizards all slowly face-palmed and sat on the floor. “We’re going to be here all day.” groaned Blaise. “We’ll have to.. well to talk, I guess.

\- Who wants to start?

\- Well, I don’t believe personally that the whole pureblood/muggle-born thing is still separating us. We’ve been over this. I admitted I hated you for your blood and now know that you’re one smart bitch.” shrugged Pansy. “Same for me.” said Blaise with a wink. “I never thought that way.” half-whispered Theo while staring at Hermione.

Uncomfortable, the witch stayed silent for a second before answering: “well, i’m not.”

“You’re not, what?” asked Blaise. “Okay with all of this.” she replied with a small voice. Gathering all the courage she had in her, she continued: “I now know you are not bad people but I still have so much anger and resentment for your kind.

\- Your kind? Granger, I thought we were all the same, muggle-borns and purebloods.” sniggered Pansy who had a threatening darkness lurking in her eyes. “We told you why we thought like that! Are you going to hold this above our heads forever?” she yelled. “Maybe. I don’t know. I still see all the dead bodies of young muggle-born students like me, lying on the great hall’s floor every..” she clapped at every word. “time. I. close. my eyes.” She got up and started pacing around. “I still remember all the stories I heard from my friends about their time with the Carrows. I still have several scars on my body. Not only the one on my arm.” She choked back on tears and sat back down. “So yes, it’s hard for me. It’s hard for me to reconcile the image of the annoyingly charming Blaise Zabini, the scary but funny, fierce and protective Pansy Parkinson or.. you.” she looked at Theo. “..with knowing that you were on the other side of the war. Even though you didn’t participate.

\- I did.” blurted Pansy. “I tried to sell Potter out. And I would have probably killed you If I had the chance.”

Both witches stared at each other in a deafening silence before Pansy continued: “But, today, I would proudly stand between your annoying ass and anyone who would wish you harm.” Hermione let out a single sob while Pansy furiously wiped out any invisible tear from her eyes.

Blaise stood up and came towards Hermione. He kneeled down in front of her, put his hands on his knees and, with his head down, asked: “Is there any chance that, in the future, you might see us for what we are now, not what our parents tried to make us become and forgive us? I’d hate to go back to how things were as soon as we find Draco..

\- Maybe.” breathed Hermione, shivering from the wave of emotions she was having. As she said that single word, Blaise shoulders trembled and Hermione could see tears running down his face. Without even thinking, she kneeled right in front of him and gently wiped his tears away from his cheeks. “We’ll work on that.” she simply said, with a sad smile on her face.

Slowly, another stone came out of the water and stuck to the bridge.

Dried cheeks, Hermione got up and turned to Pansy: “You two have been fighting all day long. I don’t know what happened and I don’t care but you might want to talk it out before sunset.”

Theo approached Pansy, put an arm around her shoulders and said, smirking: “Come on, don’t tell me you don’t feel a tiny bit better seeing him kneel like that.

\- I’ve seen him kneel before. And i’ll make him do so again.” laughed Pansy. A devilish smirk on his face, Blaise looked at her and said: “We’ll see who will kneel first, witch.” Theo stared at both of them before understanding the innuendo of the conversation and gag: “Disgusting. shut up. I don’t want to hear that. ew.” he started singing, his hands on his eyes. Pansy and Blaise both said “Baby.” at the same time and laughed. Pansy walked towards Blaise and extended an hand towards him which he grabbed to get up. Both stood there for a while, blank expressions on their faces before some sort of silent understanding came and replaced it with smiles.

Another stone attached itself to the bridge.

They could now see that only the middle piece was missing. “I don’t understand..What is left? We’re all okay now, right?” asked Hermione, exasperated. Theo laughed. Annoyed, Hermione spat: “What?

\- You’re so infuriating.

\- What did I do now?” she groaned.

“Come on! You know as well as I do that this last stone is for us!” in turn spat Theo.

Hermione stayed quiet. She wasn’t ready to talk about whatever was going on between them.

“Oh so now, you’re quiet, uh?

\- What do you want me to say? This is not the time!

\- It’s never nor will never be the time for you! Just tell me what you want!

\- I DON’T KNOW WHAT I WANT! I have no idea what I want! Why do you think you found me in Praha? I was running away! Running away from a life that I didn’t want anymore, from myself! For fuck’s sakes, I just saw my ex-boyfriend for the first time in weeks and the first thing I did was lose my temper and hit him in the balls! That’s not who I am! So you’re asking me about what I feel about you ?” she laughed. “Excuse me but who the fuck cares now ?

\- I do..

\- Well, you should check out your priorities because your so-called best friend might be dead somewhere or in danger and we shouldn’t be thinking about dating.”

Pansy turned to Blaise and yelled “See??” to which he only responded “shut up.” while staring at the floor.

Theo then got up and said: “Okay. So we focus on finding Draco. I won’t say or try anything until we do. Great. But will you give me a chance after all of this is done?” he spoke softly. Hermione breathed loudly and said: “After all this is done, if we still feel whatever we’re feeling, I’ll let you take me on a date.”

Theo smiled and Blaise clapped. Pansy smirked at Hermione which in return just half-groaned, half-laughed: “this is ridiculous. Are we done? We need to find him. Let’s find Draco.” All nodded.

And with that said, the last piece of the bridge put itself back into place, completing it.

With a few sighs of relief, Hermione, Theo, Pansy and Blaise began to cross the river to the other side. As soon as Blaise put his last foot on the grass on the other side, the pieces of the bridge were once again nowhere to be seen. “Shall we?”

As they began to walk again through the forest, Hermione felt observed. A few meters away, on the branch of a pine tree, the white Dragon Snake was looking in their direction. As they locked eyes, Hermione nodded at the snake who nodded in return then vanished into thin air.

That was when she knew.

No matter if all of these apparitions were real or not, she knew it was him, sending a message. “I’m coming. Hold on a little bit more.” she thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep saying that but the ferret is close.   
> As always, so so so thankful for your kudos, bookmarks and comments.


	12. The blooming tree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "A new chapter so soon?" they ask.  
> Well, I had a few days off from work and all the ideas needed for this chapter so...^^  
> There's two non-canon characters that are mentioned in this chapter for background stories' sakes.  
> Mention of death and torture.   
> Spoiler: I'm pretty sure this is the last chapter without the ferret. hehe

The conversation they had at the bridge made the four wizards fall into their own deep thoughts for a few hours. The next hint was a tree in bloom but they had no idea whatsoever where said tree would be and how to find it. As they kept getting deeper and deeper into the forest, they slowly started to lose the notion of time until the forest got so dark that they could hardly see where they were putting their feet.

“Let’s set the tent here for the night.” said Pansy, breaking the several hours-long silence, pointing at a small clearing. The others nodded in silence and began to build the tent. Dinner went by in a deafening silence, the four of them eating directly out of cans, not even bothering with seating at the table and preferring the hard but warm floor right in front the fireplace. “Do you think he is still alive? What if we have come all this way for him to be gone?” suddenly asked Blaise, staring into the flames without blinking once. Pansy, not even flinching, simply replied: “We’ll take his body back with us and bury him next to his mother.” before getting up to leave.

“He’s not dead.” the words came out of Hermione’s mouth before she could even think them. “He can’t be.” Pansy, who had frozen at the other witch’s words, snorted and asked: “Don’t tell me you’ve begun to care for his safety. He was never..

\- He has no right to do so. After all he’s done to me and my friends, he doesn’t deserve to die in such a chivalrous, heroic way.

\- Would you have preferred if he died in the war?

\- No. But i’m not done with him. I..

\- You what?” suddenly asked Theo, staring deep down into her soul. She avoided his gaze and focused on the flames dancing into the fireplace. With one big breath, she answered: “I need to know. I have too many questions left unanswered and he is the only one who can give me the answers.” Before anyone could ask anything else, she announced that she was going to bed because she was tired and one of them would have to stand guard tonight. She quickly fell soundly asleep, not even feeling Theo getting inside the sleeping bag and putting his arms around her waist. She didn’t hear Pansy and Blaise talk about her or Pansy deciding she was the one who would stay up tonight while the others slept.

However, she was the first one getting up when she heard Pansy yell “WHO ARE YOU? SHOW YOURSELF!”.

The sun had already risen and Hermione’s eyes took a few seconds readjusting to the light. Her wand pointed at the blurry mess in front of her who was slowly disappearing, she began to look for Pansy. The shorter witch was standing a few meters away from the tent, turning frantically from one side to the other, brandishing her wand while sobbing profusely. “Pansy, what’s happening?

\- I.. I heard..I heard her…

\- Who?

\- Erin.” She choked on her tears and fell to the ground, hitting the floor with her close fists, one still holding firmly her wand which was now emitting sparks. Hermione quickly sent a Patronus to wake the boys up and kneeled on the floor near her foe-turned-friend. “Pansy...Pansy...Stop..” she wouldn’t stop crying. “Pansy!! Who’s Erin?”

Quickly, she heard the boys running towards them and, in the matter of seconds, Blaise was sitting on the floor, holding Pansy in his arms. “Granger, what happened?” he asked, a terrified look on his face. “I don’t know! I heard her talk to someone so I came to help and there she was, crying.

\- Who were you talking to, love?” he asked Pansy but she only kept sobbing in his arms. Not leaving Pansy out of her sight, Hermione answered “She was talking to someone named Erin.”

Blaise Zabini was a filthy rich, handsome, arrogant and overwhelmingly confident son of a bitch but for the first time since they left Praha, Hermione saw in his eyes a scared little boy. “Not possible.” he muttered, shaking his head before looking at Theo who, until then, had been silently observing. He stared at the couple on the floor for a few seconds before looking at Hermione and nodding towards the tent. She followed him and, once inside, he instructed her to seat. “Why is it not possible, Theo?

\- It’s not possible because she’s dead.

\- Oh..but she could be a ghost attached to Pansy.

\- No, she couldn’t.” answered Theo with a very low and sad tone in his voice. “The year of the war, while you, Potter and Weasley were on the run doing i don’t know what, Pansy and Draco were at school. For the Slytherins, we either had the choice of leaving the school under the false pretense of studying abroad or complying and enjoying the new methods of education. Because Draco was too busy being Voldemort’s little bitch, Pansy was left with no protection at all so she did what she could to survive: she enrolled as some sort of prefect program the Carrows had put in place. Only the word ‘prefect’ remained from Dumbledore’s time and they were in reality some sort of Death Eaters’ minions, keeping the students in check while the adults had other stuff to do. Most of them who had joined like Pansy out of fear, had developed some sort of code with the students to make them pretend to cry so they wouldn’t have to really hurt them. They would only pretend, you see? The kids would put on a show, rolling on the floor and screaming their lungs out, the Carrows would enjoy the spectacle and they would leave with only a throat ache. I think Neville told us about that. Yes, yes he was some sort of liaison between house and the only one willing to include and secretly work with the older Slytherins to keep the younger students safe. What you don’t know is that, one evening, a second-year Ravenclaw named Erin Cornwell was caught sneaking food to muggleborn kids who had been kept in the castle for entertainment purposes and jailed in the dungeons. She was brought to the Carrows’ office and they thought this would be a good way for Pansy to exercise her right as Lady Parkinson to punish those beneath her status. Pansy was ready to send the signal to Erin so she could pretend to hurt her as usual but, before she could stick out her wand, a high-ranked Death Eater came into the office to check out the show and that is where everything went to shit. Who was it? Bellatrix Lestrange. Shit. She saw right through it. She crucioed the kid and killed her right in front of Pansy, slowly and painfully. She made Pansy watch until the end. From what I’ve heard, the kid kept calling for Pansy between screams, asking for help..

\- This is so messed up. But why would she imagine her call her name? Does she have PTSD?

\- PT what? I wasn’t dreaming nor imagining anything. I know what I heard.”

Pansy and Blaise had just entered the tent. “You’re really funny, you know. You’re the one who’s been hearing voices and seeing shit and we all have to believe you did but if it’s me then it’s just a dream or whatever PSTD is ?

\- You’re right, i’m sorry. It’s not fair of me.

\- I think it’s another one of those goddamn signs pointing us in the direction of the tree.” groaned Theo.

“It’s so frustrating.. I wish whatever or whoever they were would be more straightforward in telling us or at least showing us what the hell they want..” sighed Hermione, rubbing her eyes vigorously. As soon as she said those words, Pansy, Theo and Blaise looked at the entrance of the tent at once: “I..

\- Do you hear it too?

\- I don’t hear Erin, I..

\- Me too..” Theo quickly got up and ran out of the tent, soon followed by Blaise. Pansy seemed frozen on the spot, her fists clenched on her side, but Hermione could see tears forming in her eyes: “Pansy..

\- Whatever this is, I think it’s going to lead us somewhere. We should pack the tent and catch up with the boys.

\- Pans..” Grabbing the bags, she didn’t let her finish what she was about to say and got out of the tent. Whatever Pansy Parkinson was going through, Hermione wanted to help but didn’t really know how to proceed. Had she been at the castle at the time and not know that they were all pretending to torture the kids, she might have killed Pansy and all the others on the spot. _“The things we didn’t know..”_ she thought, promising to herself that she had to tell Harry and maybe Ron, if he forgave her one day, about all that she had learned on this journey. Bags and tent packed into Hermione’s little purple purse, they ran through the forest to catch with the boys. Although her leg was much better now, Hermione kept on wincing every step of the way until it was too much for her to handle. As she stopped to catch her breath, Pansy looked at her and, grabbing her hand, she yelled “Erin’s voice is getting stronger! Let’s keep going!”. With one little push, Hermione followed her friend through the woods, sometimes closing her eyes due to the pain until she crashed against someone taller than her.

Opening her eyes, she saw Blaise and Theo standing right in front of them. Both seemed in some sort of trance, not moving an inch even though they almost fell due to the girls crashing into them from behind. “What’s…” Hermione didn’t finish her sentence.

In front of them was the most incredible tree Hermione had ever seen in her life. It looked like a large, majestic and very ancient oak but it was… “It’s on fire.” blurted Pansy. “Why is it on fire ? wasn’t it supposed to be blooming?

\- I guess Malfoy was wro…

\- MOM!!!” screamed Theo, falling on his knees. “Theo..it’s not her..” muttered Blaise, putting his hands on Theo’s shoulders. Theo violently shook them away and looked at his friend, a angry look on his face: “HOW DO YOU KNOW? I CAN HEAR HER!!

\- Because I can hear Cleo calling my name.” Theo’s face suddenly became as white as snow and large tears rolled on his face. Blaise looked surprisingly serene while Pansy had begun to silently cry again. “Who’s...who’s Cl..

\- Cleo was my older sister. She got married at seventeen and was killed by her own husband a year later.” simply answered Blaise, forcing a sad smile on his face when he saw the horrified expression on Hermione’s face. “I’m..

\- So I can hear Erin, you can hear your sister, Theo his mother.. They’re all dead. What the fuck does this all mean? are they playing with us?” angrily asked Pansy, drying her tears away with the sleeve of her jacket. Uncomfortable, Hermione whispered “I can’t hear anybody..Why can’t I hear anybody?

\- You haven’t lost anyone that meant something to you.” shrugged Blaise, still staring at the flaming tree. Before she could control herself, Hermione let out a dry laugh: “I might have not lost a sister and my mother is...BUT I HAVE LOST PEOPLE! Fred, Dobby, Sirius, Tonks, Remus, Colin... ” Tears began to roll on her face. “I might have not meant anything to them but they meant a lot for me..”

The anger and sadness she had been repressing all those months was coming out at full speed and was making walk towards the tree. “Hermione!

\- No! We don’t know what it is!

\- Don’t get too close!

\- I want to know why I can’t hear anybody!!” she screamed back.

As she was getting closer to it, the flames were blinding her but strangely, it wasn’t as hot as she was expecting. She stood a few steps away from the tree and yelled: “What’s the problem with me? Did I not matter to any of them enough for them to come back? Why am I the only one not hearing anything? After all that I’ve done..” she broke down, falling on her knees.

_“Granger..”_

Then she heard his voice. As much as she thought she would be somewhat relieved to hear a voice, hearing his broke something inside her.

“NO! SHUT UP! NO!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. She quickly fell three pairs of hands on her, helping her to get up. “What?

\- Did you hear something?

\- I..I..NO! YOU HEAR ME! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO BE DEAD!” she screamed once again.

Pansy froze on the spot and stared at the tree, her face hard as stone. “He’s dead.”

Blaise looked at her and asked “Who’s dead?

\- Draco.

\- NO! I REFUSE!” Hermione was losing her mind. “I HAVE QUESTIONS!”

_“Of course, you do Granger.. Of course you do.._

\- SHUT UP!

_\- Get a grip._

\- No.

_\- The center of the tree._

\- What?

_\- Like the Whomping Willow.”_

She stopped crying and took out her wand out of her sleeve. She yelled “Ventus!!”, pointing her wand at the tree trunk. Nothing happened.

_“All together.”_

“ALL TOGETHER!

\- Granger..

\- DO WHAT I SAY!”

The four wizards stood side by side and pointed their wands at the tree: “Ventus!” The fire around the tree trunk momently dissipated and Hermione could see a dark gem the size of her hand embed on the trunk. “Again!”

“Ventus!”

Hermione jumped at the tree and put her hand on the gem. The tree shone brighter before opening in two, leaving a passage where the trunk had been before. While the floor of the part of the forest they were standing in was covered with a thin layer of frost, the floor on the other side of the passage was green and luscious with flowers of all colors. She could see a beautiful path leading somewhere else in front of them.

“Don’t you dare be dead.” she whispered, giving one last look at the flaming tree.

 _“As long as I breathe, I wouldn’t dare cross you.”_ she heard him chuckled.

She snorted and looked back at her companions who all had been silence for a while now, dumbfounded at everything that was happening.

“Let’s go.” she ordered before stepping into the passage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you guys think? I would really, really love to read your thoughts!  
> I have lately realized how important comments are for the writers so I have started to comment on the fanfics I read too haha I know that the more comments I get, the more excited i get to keep on writing this story.
> 
> Enough babbling, thank you for the kudos and the very few but very precious comments as always!


	13. The Realm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SHE'S BACK AGAIN??! SO SOON?!  
> What can I say? I'm on a roll..hehe
> 
> This week, I had as a personal goal to try to comment on all the fanfictions i have been reading (until now, I usually only did so on the last chapter, to thank the author for the story) and it actually has been fun so I invite you to do the same! Of course not only on mine but on all the fanfictions you read!! Give the author your opinion, fangirl/fanboy/fanpeople over a moment or just thank them for another great chapter!! 
> 
> I'll shut up now.. Happy reading!

As soon as she put a foot on the other side, Hermione felt warm wind on her face and the air smelled like spring. “This is beautiful” she whispered. They were surrounded by big and beautiful trees in bloom and flowers that she could hardly recognize. She could feel something in the sweet and light air surrounding them, as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. For the first time in Merlin knows how long, she could feel a genuine smile coming on her face: She was in a beautiful and warm place, surrounded by her foes that had become friends and was about to finally found the lost man she had been looking for what seemed like an eternity. As she was letting herself be hugged by the old friend that was happiness, the moment broke into thousand pieces like shattered glass by Pansy’s voice: “This place is dangerous.” 

Coming out of her trance, she looked at the other wizards who too had a peaceful look on their faces. The smaller brunette witch, on the other hand, was frowning and looking around them. Blaise put an arm around her shoulders and, still smiling, said: “Come on, Pans’.. This is beautiful. We can appreciate beauty other than your own.” 

The witch slapped his arm out of the way and stood in front of her female friend, her hands on her hips: “Come on Granger, snap the hell out of it! The smart witch that you are should recognize that all of us being all mushy and smiley and shit is not normal. Hell! the smell, the temperature of this place is not normal! I don’t even see a single insect or bird! GRANGER!” 

She shook her friend’s shoulders. Finally completely coming to her senses, Hermione took her wand out of her sleeve and said: “No, no.. you’re right. Gosh, we’re so stupid.. she’s right! BOYS!” She snapped her fingers in front of Blaise’s face who, after shaking his head like a dog for a few seconds, finally had his normal expressionless face back on. Theo, on the other hand, seemed to be deeper into whatever was happening. Hermione put her hands on each of Theo’s cheeks and said: “Theo, look at me..look at me! I need you! This is not safe!”. As if she had just said the magic word, Theo finally looked like he was waking up: “‘Mione..what.. What the hell was that? I felt like..

\- Like you were happy again and nothing wrong could happen..” Blaise had finished his friend’s sentence, eyes closed, his head against Pansy’s shoulder. 

“Whatever this was, we need to help each other to not fall back into it.

\- Let’s find Malfoy.

\- Wands out.” 

The four companions hardly had the time to do another step that they were suddenly surrounded by a dozen people, brandishing swords, bats and….”wands?” blurted Theo. “I thought Veelas didn’t need wands to do magic.

\- Unless they’re mixed with wizards. On your guards.” ordered Hermione. 

The four of them put their backs against each other and stuck their wands out towards the forest inhabitants. None of those people move nor said a word and simply stayed there, looking at them.

Uneasy, Blaise asked: “What are they doing? Should we attack or..

\- There will be nobody attacking anybody today. Nor tomorrow or ever. This is a place of peace.” a voice responded. 

A beautiful and talk woman with dark skin appeared from behind two other soldiers. Her hair was braided and was long enough to touch her thighs, she had gold tattoos all over her body from what Hermione could see appear outside of her armour. 

“ Please, surrender your wands.

\- Nope.” snorted Pansy. “As if we were going to let you get us that easily.

\- We are not taking you prisoners. The policy of this place is to take any weapon from any newcomer until we know they are not harmful. You should understand, after all you British wizards have been through.” 

She looked at Hermione and smiled: “It’s an honor to finally meet you, Miss Granger. You are more of a warrior that I was ever in my hundred and thirty years of serving the Realm.

\- We are not here to cause any harm. We are here to get our friend and go. We won’t ever talk about this place to anybody.” replied Hermione, with an almost imploring tone that surprised even herself.

“A friend, you say? Our Realm has been home of many species, as you can see.” she gestured to the soldiers all around them. “I’m sure you will find your friend, healthy and happy, in no time. My name is Zara.” she put out her weaponless hand out for Hermione to shake. 

The witch hesitated for a while but, out of pure survival, shook it. “Hermione Gra..you know who I am. So you also know that I fought for the light and I mean no harm to you but that I also won’t be wandless. Not over my dead body. ” Zara raised her eyebrows and then, smiling again, simply answered: “That won’t be necessary.”  Hermione’s vision slowly became blurry and her legs felt like marshmallow. As she fell, she didn’t felt the impact with the floor but she could still see Zara’s enigmatic but now blurry smile before all became darkness. 

When she woke up, her head was on warm legs and a hand was going through her hair: “If we get out of here alive, i’m giving you a perm.” she heard a feminine voice say. “Keep dreaming.” she groaned before she got up. Wincing, she felt like she had drunk the whole alcohol inventory of the Three Broomsticks and then some more. 

“Where are we?” She looked around her but her vision was still a little bit blurry. She could see that they were in some sort of cave that had been simply but cozily furnished. Her male companions were sitting on benches while Pansy and her were sitting on a large carpet on the floor. 

“We don’t know. I guess it’s their own version of a prison cell.

\- How long have I been out? 

\- I woke up first. Then I slapped the shit out of Theo who woke up straight away. We let you guys sleep. Pansy has been awake for what seems like an hour but, honestly, we don’t know how long we’ve been here. I’d say three hours but I’m not sure.” answered Blaise.  Slowly and painfully, Hermione got up and walked towards the door. “I hate to tell you that but we’ve already tried, it’s locked.

\- Anyone tried wandless magic?

\- hmm.. we don’t know how..

\- Oh..”

Hermione concentrated on the handle of the door. After a few seconds of complete silence, she heard the lock open. Blaise, Theo and Pansy stood right away behind her while she opened the door. 

“Great. You all woke up. Wait here please.”

A goblin that Hermione remembered having seen in the forest smiled at them and went away while a Veela stood in front of the door, both of her hands on a large sword. While she had a beautiful smile on her face, her eyes were expressing something quite scary that made the four wizards retreat back inside. With a nod of her head, the Veela closed the door behind them. “Well, now they know that one of us can do wandless magic and we’re still stuck here..great.” groaned Theo. 

Half an hour passed in silence and nobody had come back for them.  “We need a plan.” suddenly said Theo. “We can’t stay here. Pansy is right. This place is dangerous.

\- What do we do? We don’t have wands and I don’t know the extent of my wandless magic..

\- Well, we’ll have to fight like muggles. 

\- Before we even think of leaving, we need to find Draco. Alive or not, I’m not leaving without him.

\- Me neither. 

\- We might die for his corpse.

\- He’s not dead.” affirmed Hermione. 

Her friends looked at each other in silence for a few moments before Theo approached the bench where she was sitting and sat next to her. Putting his hand on her arm, he said in a small voice: “Listen, we’ve talked between us while you were still out..we’re grateful for all you’ve done for us but, let’s be realistic, he’s gone. 

\- No, I refuse to..

\- Listen, Grangy, love. We know. It sucks. But you heard him back at the tree. We all heard dead people and...and you heard him.” Blaise was now squatting in front of her and patting awkwardly her knee. “If we can, we’ll bring back his body and give the bastard the funeral he deserved. Lots of alcohol, in a beautiful place, maybe a lake, near his mother.

\- No, you don’t understand, it wasn’t the same for you as it was for me! He..

\- Hermione..Draco is gone.” whispered Pansy, exasperated, tears rolling down her cheeks. “He..he’s just gone.

\- Hmm..Hello?”

A shiver went through Hermione’s spine before her entire body was submerged by an intense heat. After all the dreams she had had of him, she could recognize his voice like no one else. 

Standing in the frame of the open door, almost shining like a ghost due to the candles held by the goblins behind him, was standing Draco Malfoy, in flesh and bones. He had changed a lot since Hermione had last seen him. He seemed taller and stronger but his blond hair, now surprisingly short compared to the Lucius-like style he had sported at the tribunal, was still something the witch would have recognized in a sea of people. As hard as it was for her to admit it to herself, Hermione also noted on how handsome he had become. 

A few seconds of silence went by before her companions all jumped off their seats and ran towards him. Pansy was the first to reach him and put her arms around his waist, her head on his chest, sobbing like she had never cried a tear in her whole entire life. Theo put both of his hands on his face and kissed his friend on the lips before silently hugging him too. Blaise, laughing like a maniac, jumped on top of the others, kissed his friend’s forehead and kept muttering between laughs “you maniac.. you bastard..you’re here..you sneaky, sneaky bastard..alive..Merlin..” while big, sparkly tears rolled down his dark cheeks. 

Draco Malfoy looked a bit surprised but appeared happy to be the center of such attention. While he pat his friends' backs and gave a kiss on the top of Pansy’s head, his eyes were fixed on Hermione. His feet being the only part of his body available, he closed the door behind him with a kick. Surely, his friends began to flood him with questions:

“What were you doing?

\- Why didn’t you come home?

\- Were you here all this time?

\- Are you okay?

\- Did they do something to you?”

Hermione was still standing in front of the bench she had been sitting on when he first appeared. She was having an internal conflict, thousands of different thoughts were buzzing around in her head at the same time: She wanted to go and kiss him too, hug him and be happy with the others but she also wanted to slap the hell out of him for being such an idiot and making his friends and herself go on such a journey for him. Memories from the war, from the day she had spent at his house on the floor, screaming at the hands of his aunt, memories of him inside the cage at the tribunal, memories of his sentence being lifted were also coming to her, like tsunami waves. She could feel like her body was frozen on the spot but she could also feel every single one of her body parts shake like leaves. 

His eyes never left her face and couldn’t stop herself from looking back at him. He seemed to have a thousand questions for her as she did for him too. When they realized he was staring at her, the others slowly backed away and stood there in silence, waiting for what was to come.

Malfoy walked towards her but stopped a few steps away, both standing with the carpet between them. 

“Granger.

\- Malfoy.” 

They kept staring at each other for a while, the others still standing in front of the door. He seemed quite surprised to see her here which was disconcerting for Hermione as he had been the one asking for her to come. After a while, he nodded as some sort of greeting and Hermione was about to open her mouth to say something before he looked back at his friends and said: “Give up your wands. There’s nothing to fear. They’ll give it back to you. 

\- But..

\- Look, I’m hungry and you all look like you could get some food in you so do as I say.”

Surprised by his unarguable tone, his friends simply nodded while the goblins opened the door and stood in front of them, sticking a wood box in front of them. One by one, they put their wands inside and left the cell behind him. 

  
  


“They have some sort of remedy..A spell I think, from the information I managed to get from the authorities here. This place is more ancient than our own wizarding society, it dates back to before Veelas and Wizards became two separate entities, back to our earliest ancestors who combined both Veela and wizarding magic in their daily lives. I struck a deal with them: I help them with a few things and they agreed to give it to me. It can reverse any spell, any poison, any disease even close to death!” he said, smiling from ear to ear. 

They were all sitting in some sort of an outside dinner hall, in a clearing in the woods. There was five long tables, similar to the ones in Hogwarts, lighted by garlands of light hanging on the trees and candles on the tables. People of all species were sitting together, happily talking, some were eating, some were playing music, some games and none of them seemed in danger or hurt. In fact, all looked like they didn’t have a single worry in their life. 

The group of wizards were sharing a few plates of fruits and vegetables Malfoy had brought back from the communal kitchen. Weirdly, nobody else seemed to want to sit on their end of the table which was a positive thing for them as they had much to talk:

“And you really think they’ll just give it to you, just like that?

\- Look, for the whole time I’ve been here, I haven’t had any reason to not trust them, I even made some friends..me!” He laughed. Hermione had never heard his laugh before, besides the snickering he used to do when making fun of her, Harry and Ron back at school. It was a beautiful sound, she thought to herself. “In fact, if it wasn’t for my mother, I would probably want to spend the rest of my life here. No offense to you guys.” He nodded to his friends who were now speechless. He laughed once again, seeing the dumb expression they had on their face until he suddenly stopped and looked for the first time in Hermione’s direction since they had left the cell.

“Granger, why are you here?

\- What? 

\- Why are you here?

\- You asked me to be here. Have you lost your mind? Why would I be here otherwise?” she asked, shocked by the blonde man’s question. 

“I know but I haven’t been gone that long. I thought that you” he looked as his friends “would start to worry enough after three or four months to call her..” he nodded towards her. 

Blaise, Theo, Hermione and Pansy looked at each other in shock. Silently, Hermione casted a wandless spell “Silencio.” The others, too dumbstruck by their friend’s reaction did not see her do it but the surprised expression on Malfoy’s face made her know that he had seen. 

“I ask again. Granger, why are you here?”. This time his once bright expression had darkened as he could sense something wasn’t right. 

“Mate..It’s been six..seven now? months since you’ve left.” replied Blaise, with a worried expression on his face. Draco Malfoy looked at his old friend and, after a few moments of confusion, threw his head back and let out a roaring laugh: “Come on, I’ve been here for..3 weeks I think now ? No. It’s been like two months since I left. Not seven!” he laughed again but promptly stopped after seeing that he was the only one doing so. His friends all looked at him as if he had lost his mind. 

His cheeks who had been pink from laughing so hard were slowly losing their color and he suddenly looked at Hermione. “Is it true?” 

She nodded: “They came to me a month ago for help. We’ve been pretty much all over the place to look for you.” He looked at her for a while, as if he was waiting for her to start laughing and say that all of it had been a joke. As it never came, he put his hands on his hair and closed his eyes. Hermione could see his jaw clench and when he opened his eyes once again, they were full of tears not yet ready to roll down. It was weird for Hermione Granger to see her old nemesis be so openly devastated in front her. She remembered when Harry had caught him in the girls’ bathroom crying his heart out and she could recall how the idea of a crying Draco Malfoy had felt so foreign to her. Now, after all this time, here she was, looking at him trying to come to his senses. 

With a hoarse voice, he looked at Pansy who was sitting in front of him and asked: “What happened? My mother, is she…” Pansy just let out a sob, her knuckles now white from grasping so strongly the edge of the table. 

All the colors of the rainbow had left Draco Malfoy’s face. His whole body looked on the verge of collapsing from whatever pain he was feeling. His lower lip trembling, he whispered: “I don’t understand..I..tell me.”

So they did. They told him how they had been to Portugal and Macau and who they had met and how they had managed to arrive here. Hermione didn’t say a single word and decide to focus on the tree in front of her but she could feel him staring at her every time the others recalled something she had done to help. 

“I..I sometimes felt like the time was going too slowly but I thought I was just being dumb..I just thought it was due to the lifestyle here..” he coughed to hide what seemed like a sob. “I’m liked here.. I’m needed and nobody looks at me the way she does.” he nodded at Hermione. “Like what?” she suddenly spat. “Like a Death Eater. A criminal. Someone that should have died instead of your friends.” he replied. She didn’t know what to answer so she brought back her attention to the tree. He began to ramble really fast, wondering about whether he had been drugged or spelled and about who could have done it to him. They let him go on, not knowing what to do, if it was better to stop him before he fell into a hole of despair or just let him take it all out of his system. 

As he kept rambling, Hermione decided that it was not her place to take care of him. _“I have done enough”_ she thought to herself. So she just sat there, staring at the people and the place they were, looking for anything that could help them get out of there without being suspicious. As she was looking around, she could see an incredibly beautiful Veela walking towards them, her eyes fixated on their table. When she was a few steps away from them, Hermione suddenly put her hand on top of Malfoy’s and looked at him very intensely which made him stop his rant just in time for the woman to reach them.

“Welcome.” her voice was clear as a summer night, it almost sounded like wind chimes.  Malfoy, who after subtly nodding towards Hermione, quickly took his hand off and got up. 

“Your majesty.

\- I have told you countless times, you’re the only one calling me like that.” she giggled, slapping his arm but leaving her hand on it for a while afterwards.  Everything about her body seemed to move in a certain way to seduce Draco. She was wearing a flowy white dress with on top of it a leather harness where she had a few different knives. She was frail and smaller in height than Malfoy’s but was more imposing than anyone Hermione had ever seen in her entire life. She reminded her of a snake wrapping itself around its prey to suffocate it. She smiled at each one of them but her eyes lingered longer on Hermione’s face: “My name is Athalia. I am the protector of this realm. Welcome to our home.” Without breaking the staring contest she was having with Hermione, she gracefully bowed down at them. Uneasy, the wizards got up and bowed at her in return. Hermione had to try really hard to hide her smile when she saw Pansy bowing with a snarl on her face. 

“I believe you will want to rest up after your long, very long may I say, journey.” she smiled again but this time Hermione’s fingers curled to form fists. _“She knows. How does she know? Has she been in contact with that vermin from Macau?”_ she thought to herself.

Finally looking away from Hermione, she looked back at Draco and put one hand on his face, leaning her whole entire body against his. “Love, the house by the river is ready to accommodate you and your friends for as long as they are here. I trust it will be to your liking.”  Draco took her hand out of his face, held it to his lips and kissed it: “Thank you, your majesty.” Once again, she giggled, bowed to each and every one of them and left, almost floating away. 

Blaise let out a loud sigh and began to talk “That was..

\- Draco Malfoy, are you fucking the Queen?” Pansy slammed both of her hands on the table with such force that it made the wine fly out of several cups.  Draco looked at her with a menacing look and replied: “Not that it is any of you guys’ businesses but no. She has been trying to since the first day I came here. I have been using it to my advantage. Giving her enough for her to still hold her part of the deal.

\- So you’re a slut. 

\- Shut up Blaise.” groaned Theo. “Both of you shut up. Let’s go that so-called house by the river. I don’t feel comfortable here. I guess we won’t get our wands back tonight?” he asked Draco who nodded. “Let’s go, then.” 

What the Queen had meant by house was in fact just another large cave on the side of the mountain but, this time with different floors, windows and a door. One inside, it looked like one of those hip destination hotels Hermione remembered her dad having made fun of. A few large poufs and floor pillows were right by the door on a large and fluffy carpet. A large open door on the right gave them a peak of the bathroom and, at the back of the cave, was some sort of large bed pit with a dozen of pillows that could easily fit them all. 

“This would be great for..

\- Blaise Zabini, don’t you dare.

\- Witch, if you’re making me shut up, it means that you thought the same as I did.”

For the first time in a while, Hermione saw the opportunity to finally have time alone. They wouldn’t be doing anything tonight about the situation they were in anyways and the rest of her group were now laying on the carpet talking. Feeling like she was intruding, she grabbed her purse and silently left to sit by the stairs outside. Taking a big breath in, she could feel again that sweet smell but now knew to be distrustful of it and didn’t let it go to her head. The sky was full of stars, shining way brighter than anything they had seen the last few nights in the mountain. She could see people walk by, some sitting by the river, others even skinny dipping. “It does look like something out of a fairytale.” she whispered to herself.  She could hear the others laugh inside. 

Hermione was missing her friends. For the first time in months, she was acknowledging it. She missed always being with Harry, laughing with Ginny, rolling her eyes at Luna, hugging Neville, she missed the whole Dumbledore Army and the members of the order.. _“Merlin, I even miss Ronald..”_ she thought to herself, her heart aching at the thought of what she had done the last time she had seen him.  As a single tear rolled down her cheek, the door behind her opened. A jacket fell on top of her knees. 

“Cold outside.” he muttered. The blue jacket smelled like apples and her grandmother’s laundry soap bar. Patting the stair next to her, she invited him to seat. He didn't.

“I.. I just..

\- You what?

\- Nothing Granger. Don’t stay out too late.” 

And with that, he went back inside, leaving a shiver down Hermione’s spine. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *using a megaphone* THE FERRET IS HERE! I REPEAT..HE'S FINALLY HERE!" *turns off the megaphone* I should probably use the "slow burn" tag if I haven't by now..lol  
> I hope you like this story. It's by no means near the end..I'd say, we're in the end of the beginning? lol 
> 
> Thank you for all the comments on the last chapter, it made me very happy!  
> Also, as always, thanks for the kudos and the bookmarks =) 
> 
> Stay safe.


	14. A sleepless night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooo!  
> I’m posting this on my phone, on my way home from work so excuse the format and if I missed some mistakes.

**Chapter 14: A sleepless night.**

Hermione woke up on the carpet the next morning, her head on one of the floor cushions. After staying outside staring at the lake for hours, by the time she had gotten back inside, all of them were asleep on the bed and the only space left was next to Malfoy. As happy as she was to have found him, she found it rather strange to lay down next to him so she had opted for the carpet. Getting up from the floor, she saw that although the sun had not fully gone up, Malfoy was nowhere to be seen while the others were all sleeping. As she went towards the bathroom, she saw a note stuck on the door saying _“back in an hour_ ” in a very beautiful handwriting. The sudden urge to find him made her grab her purse and open the door but, realizing she had no idea where he could be, she sat on the stairs and grab a book in her bag. 

Half an hour later, as she was deeply engrossed in her book, a cup of coffee appeared in front of her face. Malfoy was standing in front of her, obviously uncomfortable to be alone with her. Once again, she patted the stair next to him, almost expecting him to reject her invitation like the day before but was surprised to see him sit down. 

A few minutes went by before Hermione finally gathered enough courage to ask him what had been burning her tongue since the minute she had seen him again:

“Malfoy.

\- hmm?

\- The journals..Why were they addre..

\- The Queen wants to see us after breakfast. I should go wake the others up.” he interrupted her before getting up quickly and closing the door behind him, leaving a frustrated and quite embarrassed witch alone outside. 

By the time she forced herself to go back inside, all were awoken and getting ready to go to breakfast. Hermione decided that she needed a long and hot shower more than breakfast so she told the others that she would find her way to the dining hall on her own. While Pansy offered to wait for her, Draco announced that he was ready to go and was the first to leave the house, quickly followed by the others.

“Why did I even bother asking? It’s not like any possible answer is going to be something I want to hear..” she groaned to herself while letting the hot water run down her hair and spine. _“I don’t know why he wanted me here, they could have, with I admit a bit more difficulty, find their way here without me..”_ she thought. Hermione was frustrated and she didn’t know why, which made her feel even more annoyed. Why did she care? She could even leave them all right now, write a note, go get her wand and leave right now if she wanted. It’s not like she promised his friends to bring him back home. “I only told them I would help find him. My work is done.” she suddenly spoke out loud, for some reason feeling weird about this statement. Although she wanted to believe she had done her job, she felt like she couldn’t leave right away, that they might need her.. _”that he might still need me.”_ she thought before getting out of the shower. 

As she walked towards the dining hall, trying to not lose her way, she suddenly heard someone call her name: “Miss Granger!”. The soldier who had arrested them the day before was coming towards her. 

“Good Morning, miss Granger. I don’t know if you remember me..

\- Zara. I think I would remember someone who knocked the hell out of me and put me in a cell.” she replied coldly, her arms crossed. 

Zara smiled and replied: “I’m sorry, I wish we didn’t have to come to that but you didn’t leave us any choice. Did you find your friend? Mr Malfoy, was it?

\- Yes, thank you.

\- I’m glad. He has been a great addition to our community. I would be sad to see him leave. 

\- He needs to come home.

\- I see...” 

Hermione suddenly remembered having seen Zara hold a wand before fainting. 

“Forgive me for asking but what are you, miss..?

\- Just Zara.” replied the woman, smiling. “I am half-witch, half-veela.

\- How did you come to live here? Were you born here?

\- We could say so, in some sort of way..I was saved by the Queen from a life of slavery.”

Seeing Hermione’s shocked expression, Zara smiled and began to walk, inviting the witch to follow: “My wizard of a father had bought my mother out of slavery and fell in love with her, although the feeling was never reciprocated from what I heard..My mom fell ill and my father ended up becoming crazy from grief and sold me to a slave merchant. That’s where the Queen’s soldiers found me, saved me and a hundred years later, I am still here!” She smiled and opened her arms: “Isn’t it beautiful? I am very proud of what the Queen managed to do with this place. 

\- Has it been always like that?

\- Oh no..It wasn’t that peaceful back when I first arrived.

\- What hap..

\- We’ve arrived!” interrupted Zara, showing her the Dining Hall. “I’m afraid the rest will have to be told another time. Have a good day, Miss Granger.

\- Hermione.

\- Hermione” she smiled widely and bowed before leaving on the opposite direction.

As soon as Hermione approached the table where the others were sitting, she saw Draco looking at her with a murderous look on his face: “What were you doing with Zara?

\- Talking.

\- What were you talking about?

\- What does it have to do with you? Can’t I talk to anyone I want? 

\- You should be careful! That is the right hand of the Queen! She could easily be trying to gain information from you! What did you tel...

\- Malfoy! Do you really think I am that stupid? I haven’t told her anything! In fact, she did most of the speaking so get off my back!” Hermione was now very angry at the sight of such sheer stupidity from the wizard. “Don’t you dare think you can tell me what to do, Draco Malfoy or help me Merlin, I’ll..

\- The Queen awaits you.” suddenly interrupted a young veela. 

Her stomach rumbling with hunger and now in a very bad mood, Hermione was the first to follow the veela, with the rest silently walking in her footsteps. Swearing in her head, she hardly saw where she was going before they arrived in a beautiful garden, full of flowers of all sorts. There, the queen and a few other veelas were gathering and sorting out flowers in different baskets. As soon as she saw them arrive, she thanked the child and asked the others to leave them. 

“I hope you had a good sleep and a nutritious meal” she told them as a greeting. Hermione’s stomach rumbled again. “I wanted to take this occasion to truly introduce you to the history of this place and answer as many questions as I can.” she smiled towards all of them, one at a time but when it came to Hermione’s turn, she could swear the Queen’s smile was showing more teeth than before. All of them waited quietly for her to continue. 

“I come from a long line of Queens who have tried as hard as they could to keep this community alive and well. We have fought many wars, seen many of ours die as I know you have. We have accepted the banned, the ostracized, the feared and the fearful, the worst and the best of the magical community. In order to keep our community safe from intruders but at the same time open to anyone and also self-subsistent, everyone had to cooperate and work together for survival. You are welcome to stay here as long as you want but, from today on, you will have to work your share. 

\- This is very interesting but we are actually interested in getting the fuck out of this place as soon as possible.” replied Pansy, soon elbowed on the side by Theo. 

The Queen looked at her with a surprised expression on her face, soon followed by amusement: “If you believe you have found all that you came for…” she turned to Draco’s direction with an intense look in her eyes. “you are free to get your wands back and we will escort you to the portal..

\- We have but Draco hasn’t yet. We haven’t forgotten about the fact that you have drugged our friend into staying here for months while he was believing that he had been here for only a few weeks.

\- Time passes in different way here but who we are to measure time? Time is only a concept. It’s how you use it that counts.” The Queen smiled at Pansy and began to cut flowers again, as if she estimated that the conversation had come to a satisfying end. 

Pansy looked as if she was about to jump at the Veela’s throat but Blaise was quicker and stopped her by saying: “We respect your.. concept? of time but you also have to pay your part of the deal. Draco deserves to get what he came for. We will be gracious enough to not alert our government for keeping our friend in hostage, in return.” His voice was as charming as usual but Hermione could see ice in Blaise Zabini’s eyes.

The queen stopped again what she was doing and asked: “Have you ever thought that your friend might not want to leave? He is and has always been free to leave. Mr Malfoy, has any one of us ever treated you in a way that made you think that you couldn’t leave?”

All of them stood in silence, staring at Draco who had been strangely silent since the beginning. Hermione could see conflict written all over his face, his grey eyes staring intensely at the Queen. 

Once again smiling as if she knew things nobody else did, the Queen continued by saying: “This matter is between me and Mr Malfoy. We will attend this matter in private.

\- Everything you want to say to him can be said in front of us!

\- Yes! You just want to use whatever you have used on him all along to make him..

\- Enough. I will see you tonight, your majesty.” Draco nodded towards her before pushing his friends in the opposite direction. 

  
  


They walked for a while, without exchanging a single word. Pansy was still puffing while Blaise was patting her back, in an attempt to calm her down. Hermione and Theo exchanged a worry look but decided to keep their thoughts to themselves. Hermione herself didn’t really know what to think of all of this: until now, she only had been focusing on saving Draco from the Queen’s grasp but what if, in reality, he didn't need saving? What if they had come all this way for him to decide to not leave with them? “especially now that he has no family to go back to..” she thought to herself. Hermione knew very well what he was feeling as she herself had been and was still very much going through it. Would she have stayed if she had found a place such as this one, where no one judged you for your past and where all the titles that came with her history did not matter? Something told her that she too would have conflicting feelings on the matter. 

They finally stopped in front of a centaur who was talking to a few of the inhabitants. 

“Ah yes, very well. Welcome. I will give you your work load for the day. Some people with specialities such as Mr Malfoy keep pretty much the same job but most of us do something different every day. You” he nodded towards Pansy and Blaise “will be drafted to closet. Our community has a commune closet where everyone is free to get clothes but it hasn’t been renewed and organized in a while. Please follow Rose.” A small and round woman smiled at them and so they left. 

“I have been informed by the stars that you are very intelligent.” Hermione laughed but stopped right away, seeing that the centaur was very serious in his beliefs. “You will work with Mr Malfoy. He’ll explain everything to you. 

\- What about me? Can I go with her?” asked Theo. 

The centaur stared at him for a while before simply answering “It’s not meant to be. You will come with me to gather vegetables for tonight’s supper.

\- Vegetables? Come on! I want to go with her!

\- just go.” Hermione told him, nudging nicely. He groaned but followed the centaur. 

Draco was looking at his friend going away with a frown on his face. 

“Malfoy..”

He kept staring at his friend.

“Malfoy..Malfoy!” Hermione clapped her hands in front of his face. He shook his head and stared at her, looking lost before regaining his composure and turning his back to her while saying: “let’s go.”

Soon, they arrived at one of the only few small buildings Hermione had seen since she had first arrived. “This is the hospital. 

\- Are we going to be healers?

\- No. Our job today is replenish all the potions the healers use. Today, we will be making Blood-replenishing potion, burn-healing paste and calming draught. We have nothing left.

\- We?..” ask Hermione, still feeling suspicious after their conversation with the Queen. 

He looked right into her eyes for a few seconds, slightly shook his head and got into the building. They walked through a long corridor before arriving in front of a dark brown door.

Once inside, Hermione felt like she was back in Snape’s potion classroom; dark, full of fumes of all colors, the room was small but full. There was a big table in the middle on which was a few cauldrons and lots of plants of all sorts scattered here and there. 

“I have already started the process for the blood-replenishing potion, you can start the burn-healing paste. 

\- Okay.. 

\- We have to share the table..this lab is supposed to be for only one person, sorry..

\- no problem. I’ll stay on my end of the table.” replied Hermione, rolling up her sleeves. 

They spend the next few hours, hardly stopping to eat a sandwich at lunch, in a total silence, punctuated with the sound of bubbling potions. Hermione expected this to be weird, for her to be on her toes, looking for some sort of weapon in case Draco went back to his old ways. However, she surprisingly felt at ease, especially since she didn’t have to worry about anything else but her job as Draco looked like he knew what he was doing. 

“ I forgot you were good at potions.” she suddenly blurted. 

He let a spoon fall on the table and looked at her: “What?

\- Nothing, it’s just..I was used to do my work and the others’ in potions class. It’s..it’s quite nice to.. you know..work with someone who knows what he’s doing.

\- Ah..well, if you want to get into specifics, I was better than you were at potions.” he snickered.

Shocked but amused at the same time, Hermione threw a beetle eye, aiming at Draco’s forehead. 

“Hey! 

\- Come on, the only reason you were better than me was because your godfather was teaching the class! 

\- Well, you were all of the other teachers’ favorite student so let me have Snape.

\- No.

\- No what?

\- I wasn’t all of them’s favorite. I wasn’t Trelawney’s.”

They both look at each other for a second and then burst into laughter. 

“I never understood your aversion for divination.

\- It’s pure bollocks.

\- Not everything. 

\- Come on, don’t tell me the almighty Draco Malfoy believes in tea leaves.

\- For someone who believed that strongly in Potthead and his prophecy, you are oddly skeptic. 

\- Call Harry “Potthead” one more time and I’ll make you eat this whole jar of beetle eyes.” she threatened him, shaking the jar in front of his face. 

He smiled, nudged her on the side with his elbow, replying with a soft voice: “I don’t hate Potter anymore. Me and my..my mother, we owe him a lot.” Hermione looked at his face. Although he was smiling, she could see the pain in his eyes, a pain that she knew too well. As she was about to say some words of comfort, Draco shook his head and changed the subject:

“ So tell me, Granger. Will I be your best man or his?

\- What do you mean?

\- Well, I should be since you met thanks to me.

\- What are you talking about?

\- You and Theo. I see the way he looks at you. He used to look at me like that, actually.” he chuckled fondly. “How long has this been going on?”

Hermione laughed awkwardly: “Me and Nott? Nothing’s going on, nothing..

\- Why?

\- What do you mean? just because..

\- I mean, he’s not ugly, he’s actually a good person and you are..” he stopped talking and stared at her, his eyes getting bigger by the second. His eyes stopped on her lips for a while and then straight back up.

Hermione could not stop staring back into his grey eyes. “I am what?” At that moment, she could feel the thickness of the air around them. Slowly, Draco put down the spoon he was holding in his hand down on the table and stepped towards her. The space between them was getting smaller and Hermione was finding breathing hard to do. As he finally stopped at arm length, the witch could swear Draco might hear her heart beating. “well, you are you.” 

They stared at each other in silence, for what seemed like an eternity before their bubble was burst by the door opening. 

“Dinner has already started! What are you still..” Theo stopped talking to look at them. 

“I see I’m intruding..” he stated coldly, with something that Hermione could have sworn as jealousy written all over his face. He looked at Draco with dark eyes and went out of the lab as quickly as he came, leaving the door open behind him. Draco suddenly coughed and quickly began to put out the fires beneath the cauldrons before grumbling: “Let’s go. Dinner.”

Hermione spent the whole entire dinner looking furtively at Draco who was laughing at his friends retelling their day of work.

“I told that bitch that you don’t mix corduroy and jeans under any circumstance but she left wearing a brown corduroy jacket and a light blue jeans skirt!

\- I thought Pans’ was going to kill herself. Or her.” Blaise laughed. 

Draco was listening to his friend, a smile on his face while Theo was now talking about some veela called Anya who didn’t leave his side the whole entire day. She was mesmerized by this man she thought she knew; the way he was laughing fondly at his friends’ misadventures while putting an arm around Pansy’s shoulders, was such a strange and foreign concept for her as this image didn’t have any correlation with the idea she had built of Draco Malfoy all those years. Had she not known who he was, had she not have history with him, she would have found him charming, intelligent and almost “beautiful..” she whispered. 

“What did you say?” asked Blaise. 

Startled, Hermione quickly replied: “Nothing, I was saying that i’m tired.

\- Me too.

\- We should go to bed.

\- You guys go ahead, I have someone to meet.” stated Draco, getting up first and leaving the table.

“Where is he going?

\- He’s meeting the Queen, remember?

\- Oh..” Hermione resisted the urge to follow him and walked blindly towards their dorm.

Half an hour later and all of them were now showered and had changed into more comfortable clothes to go to bed. 

“Granger, don’t you dare sleep on the floor again. You can sleep next to me. I’ll protect you from those bastards.

\- Hey! I would never lay a hand on Hermione!

\- That’s because you know i’ll kill you if you do.” answered Pansy with a sweet voice, caressing Blaise’s cheek. 

“Hey Hermione, can we talk?” asked Theo, a hand on her arm, while the two lovers were beginning to quarrel.

“I’m tired, can this wait tomorrow?” groaned Hermione. 

Theo seemed disappointed but replied: “Yes, of course. Good night.” before laying next to Blaise, on the opposite side of the bed. Hermione didn’t know why but she was feeling more and more uncomfortable about whatever was going on between her and Theo. She knew she had no reason to as he had been nothing but a sweet, comforting presence on this journey. She found him to be quite handsome, funny, sensible and a gentleman. Yet, the idea of being something more than friends with Theodore Nott made her feel uneasy, as if there was something wrong about it but she couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

Still thinking about Theo and what was wrong with her not wanting to get closer to him, she slowly fell asleep in a comfortable bed, for the first time in what felt like centuries. She didn’t know how much time had passed but when she woke up again, the others were soundly asleep and she couldn’t hear any noises besides two voices speaking on the other side of the front door. 

“How could I trust you after knowing what I know? I lost so much time!

\- I never lied to you, you never asked!

\- How could I know that time was different here if you didn’t say anything about it? Were you expecting me to stay here forever?

\- Why wouldn’t you? Draco, look at me!

\- Athalia..stop..

\- Don’t you lie to me and tell me that you don’t feel the way I do about us, about this place! You’re happy here!

\- I don’t know anymore..don’t touch me...Athalia, stop!”

Hermione had rushed towards the door and opened it widely. 

“What’s going on?

\- Nothing that is of your concern, Golden Girl. » spat the Queen back at her, her teeth showing like an animal ready to jump at its prey’s throat.

« What did you say ?” Hermione was pissed. She didn’t care if she was the Queen of the world or Merlin himself, she was about to jump at her throat when Draco put his hands on both of her shoulders and said “Go back inside, I’ll be right behind you.” 

Electricity roamed through her entire body, entering from her shoulders where Draco’s hands were to the tip of her toes. She nodded mechanically and, after throwing a last menacing look at the Queen, went back inside, closing the door as slowly as she could, which earned her a small laugh from Draco. As she laid back on the bed, she could hear him say “Don’t you dare talk to her like that. Oh and Athalia? I want what you promised me. I won’t wait much longer. Don’t test me.” 

Sleep was slowly overtaking her again when she felt the mattress slightly sink right next to her. She was wondering why he had decided to lay down next to her and not Theo when all went dark and she finally fell asleep again. Once again, this was of short duration as she awoke due to heavy and quick breathing right next to her right ear. 

Draco was shaking, tossing on the bed, breathing heavily and quickly, sweat pearling on his forehead as if he were having a nightmare. She hesitated for a while on whether to try to wake him up or ask the others for help but his breathing was getting so much quicker that she automatically put her left hand on his cheek and slightly slapped him: “Malfoy..Malfoy!!” 

He let out a short but raspy scream and opened his eyes wide opened. He stared right through her for a few seconds as if he couldn’t recognize her before slowly calming down. What he did next took Hermione’s breath away as he put his hand on hers before sighing a single word: “Hermione..” and falling right back to sleep, still holding her hand in his. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this happened. Haha  
> A lot happened actually.  
> I kind of have the outline for the rest of the story. It might be more or less 21 chapters! I also have other fun ideas for other fanfictions which I’m quite excited about. But first, let’s finish this one!  
> As always, I’m so so so thankful for your kudos, subs and more than anything, your comments!


	15. The Party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a quite short chapter, with a pinch of angst and a teaspoon of fluff.   
> I ask for forgiveness in advance because I didn't read what i wrote so it might be full of errors and really weird.  
> Have fun!

When Hermione woke up, her hand was still in his. He looked quite peaceful for someone whose sleep had been disturbed by terrible nightmares. She stared a bit at his face, fighting the urge to touch the strand of golden hair falling on top of his eyes. As she was lost in contemplation, Draco Malfoy suddenly moved and she quickly took her hand out of his in order to get up. Whatever had happened last night didn’t mean she wanted to be caught staring by him.  Slowly pushing the covers aside, she heard a slight knock on the door. When she opened it, no one was there but a simple origami of a flower on the floor. As she took it, the flower opened to show a message: 

_ “Your host, Queen Athalia, invites you tonight,  _

_ to a night of festivities, to celebrate the newcomers in our realm.  _

_ May your presence bring light to our society.”  _

“What’s that?”

A sleepy Blaise was standing behind her, his head poking above her right shoulder. 

“We’ve been invited to a party.

\- A party?” he took the paper out of her hands, excitedly. “to celebrate what?

\- us.” she chuckled. 

“Wakey wakey! The bitch is celebrating us tonight!” he jumped on the bed that quickly into a groaning sea:

“shut up.

\- What are you on about?

\- a party, my love!

\- a what?” Draco grabbed the invitation from Blaise’s hands, read it and shrugged. “She does it for all the newcomers. It’s going to be..well, quite nice, if you like that kind of thing..” he added before disappearing into the bathroom, not even glancing once towards Hermione. 

The day went on by in a flurry of people dressing up tables, putting even more lights on the trees than usual, cooking and preparing beverages. Hermione and Pansy had been told to help gathering flowers to put on the tables with three young-looking veelas. 

“It’s going to be so much fun!” a redhead veela called Kiara while giving a bunch of violets for Hermione to put in a basket. “Everybody dances until sunrise! The food is divine too!” added her blond friend Anya while she helped Pansy get a huge basket of fireweeds on top of a table. “I hope your tall companion will give me a dance!

\- Which one?” spat Pansy. Hermione prayed for Anya’s sake that she wasn’t talking about Blaise.

\- I heard he was called Theodore?”

Hermione smiled at Pansy who shrugged in an attempt to hide her relief. 

By the time both of the girls had finished their share of the workload and had gone by the closet to find something to wear, their house was dark and silent.  “Those assholes couldn’t even wait for us?” groaned Pansy, looking at the note the boys had left on the door, saying that they had left for the party early.  Half an hour later, both witches stepped out of the door, looking cleaner and more sophisticated. Pansy was wearing a dark purple mini-dress while Hermione had opted for a dark red one, which was by far the simplest she could find in the common closet.

When they finally arrived to the dining hall, both girls let out a whisper of awe:

“This is beautiful..

\- Yup.. let’s not forget they’re all vermin though..” Pansy whispered while smiling at Kiara and Anya who were waving at them from afar, both wearing beautiful long pastel dresses. 

“Bless our eyes, you both look splendid!” cried Blaise, taking both of their left hands and kissing them. 

Theo smiled at Hermione and said: “Looking like that, you really do look like someone who has saved the whole wizard community.

\- She looks like herself, not your own personal savior.” simply replied Draco. 

As Draco took a step forward Hermione with his arm extended towards her, Theo was quicker and offered her his arm. The witch was a bit uncomfortable and was about to tell him she could walk on her own when she saw Draco turn his back and walk first towards their table. She gave the other wizard a weak smile and accepted his arm. 

Dinner was full of laughter and old Hogwarts stories. Hermione told them about the time she punched Draco and when she freed the hippogriff he wanted to see dead while she heard more Slytherin stories. Once they were all full, the tables were magically pushed aside to make way for the dance floor.  Being the dramatic person that he was, Blaise bowed really low in front of Pansy and said:

“I’ll let you lead, walk on my toes and call me all the names you want all night if you give me this dance.. and all the others.

\- Let’s go then, motherfucker.” the Slytherin replied, taking Blaise’s hand and leading him to the dance floor.  Theo, Hermione and Draco chuckled and looked at the couple walking away. Hermione was trying to find a place to sit to enjoy quietly the party when Theo and Draco talked all at once: 

“Care to dance?

\- Want a drink?”

At that moment, the witch wished she could find a hole to bury herself in. She knew that whatever answer she would give, it would have consequences. Cleaning her sweaty palms against her dress, she looked at Theo and smiled:

“I thank you for the offer but I’m not much of a d..

\- Hermione!” 

Her own personal savior appeared in the form of Anya, the blonde Veela she had worked with all day long. Unaware of what was happening, Anya jumped at Hermione’s neck and hugged her. 

“Isn’t it splendid? I think we did an amazing job with the flowers, didn’t we?

\- Oh yes, yes you’re right, we should be very proud. 

\- Aren’t you going to introduce me?” she winked and nodded towards Theo. 

Very happy to do so, Hermione looked at Theo and said:

“Theo, this is Anya. She’d love to dance!

\- Ooh yes! Let’s go!” 

Before the wizard could even mutter a single word, the veela took his hand and dragged him towards the dance floor, giggling all the way. Very proud of herself for having such a quick thinking, she looked at the last wizard to find him chucking:  “You would have made a great Slytherin, Granger. 

\- No, thank you. I am a lioness through and through. 

\- If you say so..let’s go get a drink.”

They walked towards a makeshift bar and both of them took a glass of wine to go. Looking around them, all tables were occupied. 

“Let’s go on a walk.” decided Hermione. She hoped that, without interruption, she could finally have some answers. The wizard looked a bit surprised but nodded and led the way. 

They went on for a while, in silence, taking in the night view of the lake. After a while, Draco went down a few stairs leading to a small wooden pontoon and sat on the edge, his feet dangling above the water. As soon as he got comfortable, he silently pat the edge on his left, inviting Hermione to sit next to him. Once sitting down, she appreciated the view in front of her: she hadn’t seen that many stars in her whole entire life. The moon and the stars were reflecting on the water so brightly that it was sparkling. “I get it.” Hermione said, finally breaking the silence.

“You get what?

\- Why it’s hard for you to leave.

\- It’s not, it’s just..

\- I get it. I guess that if I stumbled upon a beautiful place full of people who didn’t care about my past, I would also struggle to leave. Hell, I wouldn’t struggle, I’d stay. 

\- Come on, Granger..you’re probably celebrated as a Queen back home. Last time, I heard of you, you were about to join the ministry, on a fast-track to become the youngest minister of magic. Why would you run away from a life like that?”

Hermione laughed and then laid back on the pontoon.  “Do you know what i was doing when your snakes came to get me?

\- Weren’t you in Praha or something?

\- Yup. Running away from my life. By then, I had been on the road for weeks, going from city to city, with no real goal other than not being in London and being away from everything.”

She felt Draco lay next to her. 

“I would thrive on the popularity you have..but I guess it’s not your thing..

\- No, it’s not…”

Hermione could feel him looking at her but she chose to keep staring at the stars above their heads. It was now or never. “Malfoy..on our way here..I.. I heard..

\- What?

\- I heard your voice.”

She could sense him tensing up next to her but he didn’t say a word.

“Every time we met a dead end, every time we didn’t know where to go, at the blossom tree.. I heard your voice. Did you do that?

\- Look, I’m flattered but if I had the ability to communicate with someone like that, I would have chosen one of my friends. I didn’t even know you were with them. That could be some strong legilimency but I didn’t do anything..Unless…

\- Unless what?

\- When did those messages mostly happen? at what time of the day?

\- Usually at night. why?”

He didn’t answer. Suddenly, Hermione knew.

“Malfoy, are you telling me you unconsciously communicated with me while sleeping?”

All of the sudden, he got up and began to walk up the stairs.

“Malfoy!” she screamed. He turned back towards her violently and threw his hands in the air.

“What if I did? I must be really mentally damaged to want to communicate with you in my sleep! I didn't even wanted you here! Why are you here, Granger? 

\- What do you mean? You asked for me! 

\- But why are you still here? If it’s not because you’re dating Theo, why the hell are you still here? Why don’t you just go live your life and leave us alone? 

\- Malfoy!

\- Seeing your face, hearing your name pisses me off ! I’m tired of you, of Potter, of the weasel, of all the rest of you self-righteous pricks! Just go! You’re just a..”

Hermione was now standing up, both of her fists and her jaw clenched, tears in her eyes.

“Say it, ferret. Say it, for old times’ sake.”

He looked at her with a mix of fear, anger and thousands of questions dancing in his eyes before turning his back towards her and leaving. 

“Fuck you, Malfoy!” she yelled, tears now freely rolling down her cheeks. 

The anger she was feeling was like meeting an old friend after years of not seeing each other. It was similar to the anger she had felt during the war. Alongside came the feeling of despair because nothing had changed and a terrible sadness because she thought that, maybe, just maybe Malfoy had changed. She began to run towards their house, not stopping for anything, hardly seeing where she was going due to the tears. 

Once inside, she gathered the few objects and clothes that she had left hanging around in the room. As she couldn’t find the sky coat she had been wearing on her way to the realm, she began to open the closets frantically when she heard the front door open behind her. 

“What are you doing?”

She laughed and cried even more but didn’t answer. Since her coat was nowhere to be seen, she was trying to find Pansy’s. A hand closed on her right wrist. 

“Granger..” 

She jerked her hand out of his but finally turned towards him, warm tears still running on her now red cheeks. The way Draco Malfoy was looking at her made her heart ache even more. His grey eyes followed the trail of tears down her face and then looked at the pile of clothes next to her purple beaded purse. 

“Don’t go..I’m..

\- Shut up. I don’t want to hear it. 

\- Granger..

\- You know what’s funny? I have been asking myself the same question. Why am I still here? Why aren’t I back on the road? Why did I even come in the first place? I DON’T KNOW! It felt like I had to! Something in here” she began to poke frantically at his heart. “Something in here told me to come! I don’t have all the answers! I don’t! I have no answers at all!” She was crying so hard that when Malfoy took her in his arms, she let herself fall against him and buried her face in his shoulder. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything.. I.. I know I was the one calling you.. I just..I need time..”

He made her look at her. “Can you give me a little bit more time? 

\- for what?” she grunted, avoiding to look into his eyes.

\- Time to understand. Understand myself, understand what I feel..about all of this.”

Surprised, she finally stared into his eyes, losing herself for a while in his clear eyes before nodding slowly then quickly. When he realized he was still holding her in his arms, he awkwardly patted her shoulders and smirked at her:

“You want to go back to the party?

\- Not really. 

\- Me neither.”

Hermione put the pile of clothes back inside the closet and jumped face down, all clothed on the bed. 

“Disgusting, Granger.

\- I’m tired! You shower first.” she groaned, her face on the pillows. She felt him jump next to her. 

Adjusting herself, Hermione turned her face towards him to find him already looking at her. They stared at each other for a while before he whispered: “I’ll tell her tomorrow.

\- You’ll tell her what?

\- That I want to leave with you.” he swallowed quickly before adding “I mean, with all of you..

\- but not without the spell.

\- not without the spell.” 

When Hermione finally woke up again in the middle of night, they were still in the same position but her hand was once again beneath his. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I hope you liked it!   
> please give me your thoughts :)


	16. A morning swim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> I hope you are all well.  
> Here's a new chapter for you guys.  
> If you want anything to listen to while reading, I wrote while listening to Sleeping At last's Atlas:I and Atlas:II albums.

The eternal spring sun of the Veela Realm had yet to come out but the warmth emanating from his hand was making Hermione’s cheeks burn. She stared at him for a while, as she had began to do every morning and every night as he chose to lay next to her, night after night. His porcelain skin, his almost white hair, the pink of his lips almost made her forget for a moment who she was staring at. It wasn’t easy to forget all those years of bullying, of being on opposite sides. It wasn’t easy to forget the cold floor of his house and the way he avoided her imploring gaze when she was at his aunt’s mercy. But, if she had learned something during this whole mess of an adventure, it was not only that they had suffered as much as she had but that they had as much choice as she did, especially him. She had been thrown into all of it for having been saved from a troll by a scrawny, glasses-wearing boy while he had been born into it. Whether it was blood or platonic love that bounded them to each of their side, it was like unbreakable shackles that was still as heavy as before the war. But maybe they could bare the weight of them together, who knew, she thought to herself.

“Stop staring.” His eyes still closed, his voice was back to its cold and condescending tone. 

Still a bit hot in the cheeks, she smiled and got a tiny bit closer to him:

“Sorry. Hi.

\- Merlin, Granger, you’re creeping me out. It’s not even 6 in the morning. Stop staring.”

he replied, before taking his hand out of hers and turning towards the wall, leaving her staring at the back of his head. 

Annoyed at him but more than anything, ashamed by it all, she let out an “Ok..” in a whisper and quickly got out of bed. While putting her shoes on in front of the door, she could feel him staring at her while the others were still deeply asleep. She grabbed her beaded bag and headed to the wooden pontoon by the lake. Nobody was out yet and the sun was still behind the mountains. Realizing she was still in her pajamas, she summoned one of Harry’s old sweatshirts from her bag. “I miss you, brother..” she whispered, putting the sweatshirt over her head. 

Sitting on the border of the pontoon, she took her shoes out and let her feet dangle above the water. Staring at the water, she wondered if what had just happened wasn’t just a good example of the fact that Hermione had two versions of Malfoy in her head. 

She had the version of school, of the war, the version of Draco Malfoy that she had woken up to this morning, the version that made her question why she was here every second that went by. That Draco Malfoy had no space for a mudblood like her in his life and she knew she couldn’t spend her time running after the crumbles of sympathy and affection he would give her here and there. However, she was starting to realize that another version had taken all the space in that hole she had in her heart since the war. The Draco Malfoy of the journals and the letters addressed to her, the Draco Malfoy that she could see in every story their friends told her during the journey, stories of a sweet, protective, highly intelligent and good man. Something in her heart told her that she would probably never meet that version, the version that she had grown to “...appreciate.” she reluctantly thought to herself. 

“It’s my fault. I should have stuck to the cold, hard truth, to reality but nah, i had to just…” she began to talk out loud. Now very much pissed off at herself, she began to summon the journals she had in her bag. One by one, they came out of the purple beaded bag and landed on the pontoon, next to her. She randomly grabbed one and she began to tear the pages, one by one, tears of frustration and resignation rolling down her cheeks, until she stumbled upon the words “Find me”, then “I will come to find you” and finally “In your hands”. 

The hand grabbing the tip of the page slowly let go and fell on the words. Hermione began to stroke slowly the words from the tips of her fingers. “Where are you?” she whispered. 

“Grang...What the hell are those?” 

If his eyes could spit fire or lasers like in those muggle movies Harry made Ron watch, Hermione would have been burnt to the bone, she thought. She could see he was angry but she didn’t care, she couldn’t care anymore. “Your journals. The ones addressed to me. 

\- Why do you still have them?” he asked, coming closer. 

She smiled and said “I honestly don’t know. Isn’t it funny how the know-it-all knows nothing? I was spring cleaning..since it’s always spring here, anyways..” and she started again to tear the pages, one by one, putting them neatly in a pile next to her.

“By spring cleaning, you mean tearing them one by one?

\- Yes. I have yet to find a fun way to get rid of the pages but it’s quite satisfying to rip them out.” 

She knew really well that, to him, she looked like she had lost her mind but it felt quite freeing. Tearing those pages felt like tearing a little bit of her version of Draco Malfoy from her heart. It hurt but she would quickly feel relief right afterwards. 

“Why? Why are you doing that?

\- Oh I’m just getting rid of things that hurt me. You see, I got really good at it during the war. I got rid of everything, everyone I didn’t need to fight Voldemort. Even after, every time it hurt too much, I would just reap people out of my life. I’d rather feel empty than hurt.” She was still smiling but Draco could see the empty look in her eyes and the trails of tears shining on her face. 

“So you are getting rid..of me, right?

\- Look at you, Malfoy. Being all smart and insightful. Well done.” 

What happened next knocked the air out of her chest. Draco took the growing pile of ripped pages and threw them in the lake. 

“What..” she managed to let out, too shocked to say anything.

“Well, i’m helping you get rid of me. It’s not like I expected to stick much longer, anyways.. Here! let me do it for you! ” He forcefully grabbed the rest of the journals out of her hands and threw them in the air dramatically, right above the lake. Hermione’s heart sank as they land on the water and before she could really think about it, she took the sweatshirt off and jumped in the lake. 

“What the hell?! Granger, get out of the water now!” he yelled, exasperated. 

She didn’t realize how deep the lake was and, not being a very good swimmer, she was struggling to try to find a way to float without using her hands as she needed them to get the pages. She had only managed to grab a few pages but she was already struggling.

“Granger!

\- Why did you..” she swallowed water and choked on it. “It’s not yours!!” she coughed. 

“Yes, it is! They’re mine, Granger!

\- THEY WERE ADDRESSED TO ME!” she managed to cry before sinking a bit, swallowing water once again. She was struggling to get back to the surface, some sort of algae was sticking to her legs and pulling her down the darkness of the lake. 

Suddenly, she felt two strong arms grabbing her and take her to the pontoon. Coughing all the water out, her eyes were stinging too much to open them. 

He was slapping gently her face: “Hermione, look at me! open your eyes!” and so she did. 

Those grey eyes made her heart shake once more. “Leave me alone.” she turned herself towards the water, laid down on the pontoon and tried to grab the nearest pages still floating on the water. The journals, too heavy, had sunk as soon as they had touched the water. 

She managed to grab one corner of a page when he took her by the armpits and made her stand. 

“Stop it! What’s wrong with you?

\- You are! I just can’t! I don’t understand you!

\- I told you to give me some time..GO THEN!

\- I WILL!

\- Go back to Potter, the Weasels, go back to your muggle parents!”

Hermione froze, shaking from the cold and then she did something strange: she laughed. She laughed so hard her ribs hurt. She was gasping for hair, her two hands on her sides, still laughing while Malfoy was looking at her like she had escaped from an asylum.

“My muggle parents, you say?

\- At least they’re alive! You’ll get to go back to your home and hug them and..”

She laughed even harder, hot tears running down her face and neck, mixing with the water of the lake. “Oh Malfoy, I don’t have parents.” she replied and stopped laughing, her face turning to stone. 

“What do you..

\- I obliviated them to a irreversible point. They live in Australia and have replaced me.

\- What?

\- They have adopted a daughter. Hermione, they have called her. How original.” she chuckled, her eyes still devoid of any sign of life. 

He took a few steps towards her but she quickly turned her back on him and sat on the border of the pontoon, staring at the mountains on the other side of the lake. 

“When I go home, I’m going to take Harry’s name.

\- I thought he was with the normal weasel. 

\- I’m not going to marry him, idiot. He’s adopting me into his family. I’m going to be Hermione Potter. 

\- Why the hell would you do that?

\- Hearing my family name makes me want to throw up. or punch a wall. or both. It’s a daily reminder that I have parents that don’t know who I am. 

\- Are you sure there is no..

\- Yup. It took a few weeks of an international team of the best healers, courtesy of Shacklebolt, to come to that conclusion.”

He sat next to her and they stayed there for a while as the sun was slowly starting to creep behind the mountains. 

“My mind healer.” he finally groaned. 

Hermione had began to fall asleep but she opened her eyes and asked:

“You believe in mind healers?

\- I had to. I was too far gone. I didn’t want to talk to anybody I loved or cared. It was eating me alive, all I did for him..And that was also one of the things the ministry forced me to do to stay out of Azkaban.

\- And what did that mind healer say?

\- She told me to pick one of the persons I had hurt the most and to start writing to them. I wanted to pick Dumbledore but she wanted someone alive.. I wasn’t going to write to Potter..” he laughed “too awkward. Letters to the Weasel would have been just a list of insults so it would have been counterproductive.”

This time, Hermione laughed.

“So I chose you.” 

She stared at him, her eyes wide open. “Me..why?

\- I don’t know, I thought you would be the one who could understand me the most, with whom I could have challenging conversation and not duels. 

\- But you never sent anything.

\- I was supposed to. After a while. But I never did, with all that happened..

\- I see..Did it help? writing to me?

\- It did. It made me see things differently. About our world, about my family’s history and traditions...about you and me and what could have been if..”

They heard someone walk behind them, making the wood of the pontoon crack with each step.

“Breakfast Time! Guy...Why the hell are you guys wet? What’s that paper?

\- Nothing to do with you, Nott.” groaned Draco, visibly annoyed to have their conversation cut short. 

Ignoring him, Theo crouched next to Hermione and put his jacket on her shoulders: “are you okay? did he hurt you?

\- What the hell, Theo!

\- Theo, please..” she sighed, taking his jacket out of her shoulders. “I’m going to go. You guys resolve whatever..this..” she pointed at both of them. “is and come to breakfast.” before leaving both of the boys. 

Once Hermione left, Draco stood up and faced Theo:

“Listen Theo..

\- No, you listen, alright? I was first.

\- First in what?

\- I was there first..with Hermione.

\- It’s not a race, Nott. I didn’t think you would let someone come between us but I see that you are not as much of a Slytherin as I thought you were..

\- Cut that crap, Draco! You can have whoever you want, let me have her!

\- She doesn’t belong to anyone. You don’t even know her!

\- Of course, I do! Who doesn’t? Everybody knows who she is! She’s a hero! She’s the brightest witch of our age! She’s...” he cried Theo, quickly drowning in his own thoughts. 

Sighing, Draco shook his head and left a puzzled Theo standing alone by the lake.  Not knowing of the ongoing conversation, Hermione had taken a quick shower, gone to breakfast with Pansy and Blaise and tried to forget about what had happened earlier. Being friends with a Slytherin had its perks: Pansy had taken a single look at her, said “You’re in a shit mood, I see.” before awkwardly pat her arm and making no further comment. 

  
  


“I can’t believe they’re making us peel it all by hand! 

\- It’s fun! We get to sit all day and talk!” replied excitedly Kiara. 

Hermione and Pansy were on kitchen duty today, peeling all kinds of vegetables for lunch and diner and had been placed at Kiara and Anya, the two over-friendly young veelas’ table. 

Hermione gave a slight kick to Pansy and exchanged a meaningful look with the other witch.

Getting the message, Pansy began to smile and turned towards Anya:

“You’re right,  _ friend _ !” she emphasized the word friend with a big (and fake) smile. “How was the party? I saw you having fun with Theo. Isn’t he handsome?”

Anya and Kiara chuckled like teenagers and Anya’s cheeks were getting pinker by the second. 

“He was nothing short of a gentleman..too bad you’re thinking of leaving.

\- Oh he told you?

\- Yes. I wish you could stay forever!

\- People will be sad to see you leave.. especially for Draco.” added Kiara, concentrating on the sweet potato she was peeling. 

Once again exchanging “the look”, Hermione nodded at Pansy who asked:

“Really? I thought people would come and go here..

\- Yes but Athalia..I shouldn’t say nothing bad of the queen but..

\- Come on Ki! Athalia has the hots for Draco, everybody knows that!” laughed Anya, throwing one perfectly peeled carrot into a big bowl. “I’m pretty sure she was grooming him to become her new husband before you guys came.” she added, innocently. 

Both shocked, the witches asked at the same time: “Husband? 

\- Oh yes. Our tradition is that every few decenies, Athalia maries one of the men, preferably a wizard or a muggle, of the community and has children with him.

\- you know, to keep the veela numbers up.. after all, this place is called the Veela Realm, isn’t it?” laughed Kiara. 

Hermione and Pansy laughed too but they were shooting alarming looks at each other. 

Still playing the game, Pansy continued asking questions: “That’s quite amusing..our friend doesn’t seem to know about the wedding or I would hope I would be his best woman.

\- Oh they are close but I guess nothing is impossible with a bit of Veela charm..” smiled Anya. “None of you was involved with him, right? I hope not or it would be awkward.”

Pansy laughed “Oh no! I have my own walking mess of a man to take care of.

\- Are you, Hermione?” asked Kiara, staring right through Hermione’s soul.

Flustered, the witch dropped her knife and shook her hands: “No, no! we’re not..involved.” she smiled sadly. 

“Great. It’s not long before she asks him in marriage, i guess..” added Anya. “Time for lunch! We’ll see you after, girls!” Both Veelas smiled, waved at the witches and pretty much floated away, towards their friends. As soon as they were out of sight, Pansy grabbed Hermione’s wrist and began to run towards the dining hall. 

Hermione still didn’t know what to think of Draco, of herself, of Draco and herself but she knew that she couldn’t let the Queen do whatever she would do with her veela powers to force him into marriage. Sweating and puffing, they arrived near the dining tables and searched for the Queen. 

“Excuse me, do you know where the Queen is?

-Oh, Athalia? She's is there with your friend.” pointed out a goblin towards the steps of the hospital. 

There was Athalia and Draco, standing together, talking. Athalia was running her fingers through Draco’s hair while he just stood smiling blindly. They were holding hands. 

Pansy let out a huge “What the fuck?" 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you want to know something funny?  
> Hermione was supposed to tell Draco about her parents the first time they fought but I forgot to put it in! lol  
> I am actually happy I did because I like how it came out here.  
> As always, I am grateful for all the comments and the kudos.


	17. An Epiphany.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.  
> I would like to take a moment to express my solidarity and love to the LGBTQ+ community and especially trans women.  
> I was hurt by what J.K Rowling (who was my hero for the last 15 years) has said and cannot imagine what you are going through.  
> I am with you. You are seen. Trans rights are human rights.  
> This is a sad period for our community and I hope that this new chapter will bring you a bit of relief and peace. 
> 
> For this chapter, I have listened to Seafret's "Oceans".

Hermione froze. The multitude of feelings that were washing over her were overwhelming: anger to see someone use their gifts in such a despicable way, helplessness knowing that she couldn’t do much since she didn’t have her wand and, deep down, burning like a furnace, eating at all her organs was jealousy. She didn’t have a spare second to deal with the latest as her Slytherin friend was running like a bull towards the Queen and Draco. “You bitch! Don’t touch him!” she yelled, shoving tables, chairs and even people out of her way. Hermione looked around for Blaise or Theo but she had absolutely no idea where they were or what kind of work they had been tasked to do today. 

Draco looked at Pansy, raised his eyebrows for a mere second, as if he had snapped out of whatever he was in but then went back to contemplating Athalia with a dumb smile on his face as if Pansy had not said anything. 

“Miss Parkinson, I don’t think your day of work has ended yet. 

\- Don’t you soil my name with your dirty lips, you bitch! 

\- Language, Miss Parkinson. You wouldn’t want to cause a scene. Jealousy doesn’t look good on you. Doesn’t it, love?” she asked Draco, brushing his jaw with the tips of her fingers. He shuddered from pleasure under her touch, his eyes closed for a while and then finally looked at his friend. The smile that he had on his face vanished as soon as he took his eyes off of the Queen’s face. “Parkinson, go away. I’m busy.” he groaned. 

Pansy let out a high-pitch noise and turned back to Hermione, her hands up in the hair: “Please, do something! 

\- What..what do you want me to do?” stammered out Hermione. 

“I don’t know, slap him, kill her, kiss him..I don’t know, DO SOMETHING!” the brunette screamed, her face red like a tomato. Hermione groaned and scratched the top of her head: “why would it work with me..” she groaned but began to walk towards them. “Malfoy.” she simply said. He ignored her. 

“Malfoy, snap out of it. She’s manipulating you with her Veela magic. You told me you wanted to leave her. You told me you were going to tell her soon!” she said, now exasperated by the dumb smile still on his face. As soon as she said that, the Queen stopped touching him and froze for a while. She turned towards Hermione, a nervous smile on her face: “You must be mistaken, Miss Granger. Draco just told me he was going to stay and tell you to go home. You are welcome to stay, of course.” she bowed, a hand still on Draco’s arm. Hermione laughed and replied: “Of course he would, you've been using your magic on him for him to stay. 

\- You have no proof whatsoever. 

\- I can prove it to all who are watching.” 

A small crowd had gathered to watch what was happening. The Queen now seemed torn between keeping her control on Draco and stopping before her public image was damaged to a point of no return. “Are you scared I can prove whatever is going on between you is fake or…” asked Hermione, letting her inner Slytherin fully out. The Queen kept on smiling, looking furtively at the crowd. “I’m rather scared you will end up looking like a fool, miss Granger.” 

Hermione decided to go full on theatrical and bowed while saying “I appreciate your concern, your majesty, but I’ll be alright.” She went up the stairs, gave a look to the Queen that could be simply translated as “Out of my way, bitch.” and stood where Athalia has previously been. The Queen still stood close, closer than the witch would have liked, right behind Draco, a few steps up above them, as if she had to keep the illusion of her superiority. 

Draco was now staring in the void, frowning. Quite nervous, Hermione put her hand on his arm and began to talk, trying to catch his attention: “Malfoy, listen to me. Whatever she did, you can fight through it. 

\- I don’t know what you’re talking about.” he replied, with a robotic voice. She sighed and continued: “Yes, you do. I know you thought you had conflicted feelings for her. I..I don’t blame you..And I know that those feelings were one of the reasons you wanted to stay but she’s been manipulating you! Look at me.” She put her left hand on his face. “Draco, look at me. You need to snap out of it and go home with us. with me. We need to keep on living, even if it hurts so much you cannot breathe. I know you don’t want to spend the rest of your life in this place, pretending to love her and forgetting to live. Your mother would have not wanted that for you.. 

\- Shut up, Granger. You wish your mother was dead too. Better orphan than replaced.” 

Hermione knew fully well that this was Athalia’s spell talking but, before she could think straight, her hand had flown to his face at high speed, making such a sharp slapping noise that the whole crowd let out sounds of surprise. Hermione was now crying, staring at her hand, red from slapping Draco. Her hand hurt like hell but it was nothing compared to the pain she was feeling inside. Draco Malfoy had a way with words that could make her feel like the most precious person in the world one day and like he had taken a scalpel and cut her heart wide open to reveal all the ugliness inside. 

“Granger..” she heard him mutter. “What..what did I.. 

\- Just snap out of it, Malfoy.” she coldly replied before beginning to go down the stairs. He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him. “She made me..she made me say that. 

\- No, she didn’t. I’ve studied Veelas to find you. She can make you feel love when there is not but she cannot make you say things you never thought.” 

He looked at her, his grey eyes full of pity and remorse before they began to shine as if a fire had been lit behind them. “Athalia.” he simply said, letting go of Hermione’s hand and turning towards the Queen. “How long? 

\- I don’t know what.. 

\- How long, you vile creature? 

\- Draco, I..” 

He took the last steps to close the space between them and grabbed the Queen by the throat. “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you even if it’s the last thing I do.” he growled. The Queen had gone very still. “Whatever I did, I built it on feelings you already had for me. 

\- Oh and you couldn’t, let’s say, seduce me the old fashion way? you had to steal my notion of time, charm me every few..what? weeks? I guess.. for me to stay. What were you going to do with me? Keep me by your side as your play thing?” 

From the middle of the crowd, Pansy suddenly screamed: “That bitch was going to marry you and force you into giving her heirs! She needs non-veela males to procreate! to keep the superiority of the Veela population here! Otherwise, they just..don’t touch me!..they just fade away as a society! Argh, leave me alone!! ” Guards were now holding her by the arms and she was trying to free herself, but to no avail. 

As Draco tightened his grasp on the Queen’s throat, Hermione wondered why no guards besides the ones holding Pansy had make a move yet. As soon as she asked herself that, her question was answered by the Queen herself. The skin of her beautiful face began to tighten and change color, her eyes were bigger and darker and her limbs had grown longer, including her fingers who now looked more like claws than human fingers. 

“That is enough.” she simply responded and she snapped her long fingers. 

  


When Hermione opened her eyes again, it was already night time and she was laying on the floor of a small and damp room. 

“Granger, wake up. Are you okay? 

\- What?” she winced from the head ache she was having. Her whole body hurt. 

“I remember you falling down the stairs before I blacked out.” explained Pansy. “She did it.” The Slytherin kicked out an empty bottle of water. 

“Where are we? 

\- Prison. I guess. We’ve been here all day. 

\- Where’s Draco? 

\- I..I don’t know. 

\- Blaise? Theo? 

\- Look, Hermione, I don’t know! I don’t know shit!” yelled Pansy. “Sorry.” she said right away before sitting back down on the floor next to Hermione. 

Hermione silently took her friend’s hand in hers and stared in front of her for a while. “Patronus. 

\- What? 

\- Have you tried sending a Patronus? 

\- I..I can’t. I don’t.. 

\- Sorry. I can, well, i’ve never tried without my wand but.. 

\- Don’t!” Pansy stopped her right away. “There’s guards in front of our door. If you manage to send a Patronus without your wand, which I doubt it, I don’t want them to follow it and catch Theo and Blaise. I hope those idiots understood what was happening and got the fuck out of here. 

\- Me too..” sighed Hermione, leaning against the wall. 

After a while, Hermione heard Pansy chuckle. “Please, do share with the class. 

\- I was just thinking about the whole situation. You and me in a cell together, You trying to save Draco from a marriage he doesn’t want.. It’s just ironic. 

\- Why? 

\- Well, he’s been obsessed with you since third year and now that you are giving him some attention, the idiot is too busy obsessing over a freaking Queen.” 

Hermione gasped but, thinking it was a joke, laughed. 

“Funny, Pansy. 

\- What? 

\- your joke. 

\- English, Granger. 

\- Malfoy being obsessed with me since third year. You do know I was tortured on his own home and he did nothing, right?” she laughed again, this time bitterly, but quickly stopped when she realized Pansy wasn’t laughing and was just staring at her, waiting for her to stop. 

Pansy took a deep breath and said: “Look, Granger. I’m not good at jokes. And yes, I know what happened. Not in details but I've heard enough. One thing I would bet my whole life on is that he has been obsessed with you since that day you punched him, in third year. 

\- Come on, Pansy. What the hell are you saying?” her hands were now sweaty and her heart beating faster. 

"Do you think the journals you got in your bag are the only things he wrote to you? 

\- What?" 

_"Of course, they are the only thing he wrote to me, why would he..”_ she thought to herself, her breathing becoming sharper and faster. 

Pansy laughed again, a sorry look on her face. “When he disappeared, I went through his room at the manor. It was full of journals and letters written to you. 

\- Wha..why? 

\- We knew about the homework his mind healer had given him but everybody figured he had chosen Potter, being, you know, his life nemesis and shit..but all I found was countless writings addressed to you. And then everything clicked.” She let out a sigh. “Why he never bothered to date me, nor Theo, nor anyone else. Why he kept insulting Potter and the Weasels but keep you out of it. Why I would sometimes catch him staring at you in the dining hall or in class.” 

Hermione was speechless; she was still waiting for Pansy to break into laughter and tell her that all of it was a joke but she didn’t. Pansy stared at her for a while, chuckled while shaking her head and then closed her eyes. “Wake me up if you have an epiphany.” 

Hermione spent the next hour staring at the floor, remembering the times she had caught him staring, the tears she had seen forming in his eyes that day at the manor. She was going through so many questions left unanswered that her headache came back and she too fell asleep. 

Still sleeping a few hours later, Pansy’s head on Hermione’s shoulder, both witches were suddenly woken up by the door of their cell opening. The Queen entered the room, smiling as if she was visiting them in their house. “Miss Granger, Miss Parkinson. I hope the fall wasn’t too painful.” she said, looking and smiling at Hermione. 

“What do you want?” groaned Pansy. 

“I just came to inform you that both of your friends, Mr Nott and Mr Zabini, are missing. 

\- Missing? what did you do to them?” yelled Pansy, jumping on her feet, ready to attack the Queen. With a simple movement of her hand, an invisible force slammed Pansy against the wall and continued: “I didn’t get the chance to do anything. They were seen leaving towards the portal, leaving everything behind, their bags, their wands...you.” 

She stared at the two witches as if she was expecting them to be devastated by the news but both witches looked at each other and suppressed a smile. 

_“Yes boys! well done! Go find help and come back..”_ Hermione prayed in her head. “I imagine that now, you won’t let us leave this place alive.” she told the Queen. 

“I don’t kill unless necessary.” The Queen was pacing around in the small cell but then stopped. “However..I don’t want Draco to be left without family or friends on his wedding day. So you will be nice little witches and wait here while we get ready. It will only take a few days. Once married, Draco will obliviate you both and send you on your merry way. See? Everything will be fine..Everything will be okay..” That last part seemed to be more for herself than for Hermione and Pansy. 

Without further words, she left, still muttering “fine..okay..a few days..”. 

Hermione and Pansy looked at each other and muttered at the same time: “We’re fucked.” 

  


_**A few hours ago..** _

  


“I don’t know why Draco is in his lab, playing mad scientist and we are here, cleaning floors.” groaned Theo, wiping his sweat with his arm. “Are you still taking a break? Is it another break or the same one as an hour ago?” he groaned towards Blaise who had been leaning on a wall, trying to stay out of the scorching sun. 

Blaise laughed and said “You know you don’t HAVE to do it. We can just pretend we did. Nobody is going to.. 

\- Theodore!!! 

\- Damnit.” 

Theodore let out another groan as he saw Anya and Kiara, the two veelas from the party, running towards them. “Ladies.” Blaise bowed. He expected girly chuckles from the Veelas but they seemed to perturbed to even care about his flirtation. Taking the broom from Theo's hands, Anya said, out of breath:

“You need to go. 

\- What? why? 

\- Listen, your girlfriends got..I don’t know! you are in danger!

\- They’re not girlfriends, remember? they said they were.. 

\- Who cares? Athalia put them in a cell! Draco too!

\- WHAT?” As Theo suddenly stood up, he kicked the bucket of water he was using to wash the floor. Blaise grabbed Kiara by the arms and asked: “What happened? tell me, veela or..” 

Kiara escaped out of his grasp and, with a frown on her face, spat: “Don't grab me, wizard! We’re here to help you!” 

She quickly explained what they had seen from afar, Draco and the Queen, Hermione slapping Draco, Draco’s hand on the Queen’s throat.. 

“That is why you need to go. now.

\- We don’t have our wands! 

\- We’ll help you go to the Portal but then you’re on your own! 

\- Put this on!” Kiara and Anya gave the two wizards long and heavy capes. 

“It will help a bit with the cold..” 

As she was trying to close the button of the cape, Theo grabbed Anya’s wrist and asked, a threatening look on his face: “Why are you helping? Who says this is not a trap?” 

Anya managed to get her hand out of his and replied, frowning: “Listen, not all of us like Athalia. We tolerate her because she keeps the Realm running. We like you and we like your girls. Go. We’ll try to find a way to help them but I can’t promise anything. Run.” 

Hidden thanks to the capes, the boys ran with the magical help of the two veelas, they quickly arrived at the burning tree. Blaise took one last look behind and nodded at the veelas.

Kiara nodded “Go. Save yourselves."

A foot in the portal, Theo looked back at Anya and said: "We’ll come back for our friends. With wizards and wands. You know what it means, don’t you? 

\- War.” simply answered Anya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ladies and gentlemen and everyone in between, shit has hit the fan.  
> I'd love to hear what you think of this chapter, bad or good, everything is welcome!  
> Be safe.


	18. To shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!
> 
> For this chapter, I've listened to a lot of Lewis Capaldi.   
> I don't know if there's still people reading this story, but if there is,   
> thank you from the bottom of my heart!

The young woman was staring at the clock, counting the minutes before she could leave the office for the day. Twirling a lock of her blond hair around her finger, she got up to take a quick look outside the corridor. As she was debating whether leaving her post to get herself a coffee was a good idea or not, the elevator opened its doors. From inside came out two young and handsome men, running towards her.

Flustered, she adjusted her cardigan, sat very straight at her desk and put on her best smile until they got close enough for her to see them well. Although they were handsome, they also looked like they had gone to hell and died a few times. Both were dirty, smelling like sewage and looking like they hadn’t had a meal or water for the past few days.

The brunette slammed his door on her desk and yelled, out of breath: “Potter! Where is Potter?

\- Sir, you cannot just barge in here and…”

The dark-skinned man, who had a particularly nasty cut on his cheekbone, told her with a very low and charming but also weirdly menacing voice: “Tell Potter than Zabini and Nott are here and that, please say my exact words, all went to shit. NOW!

\- Sir! I just..He told me to not disturb me!

\- Please! Hermione Granger is in danger!”

The secretary knocked on Harry Potter’s office door. The young auror was frowning, looking at some documents. He seemed like he had lost quite a bit of weight and that his hair had grown several inches in the past few weeks. The young woman was cursing the two intruders under her breath as she had explicitly been told to not disturb Mr.Potter.

“Sir?”

No answer. The man kept scratching his head and frowning at the documents he was reading.

“Excuse me, sir, I know I wasn’t supposed to disturb you but..

\- What is it?

\- Mr.Zabini and Mr.Nott are demanding to see you. They said, I quote: “all went to shit”. Miss Granger is...”

Next thing she knew, before she could even finish her sentence, Harry Potter was running out of his office, knocking a chair on his way out, screaming “WHERE IS HERMIONE?”.

“So you’re telling me that you left them there and ran back home?” yelled Ron. “How could you leave your so-called friends there? and Hermione? She helped you, for fucks’ sakes!”. The redhead slammed his fist on the table, making several tea cups overflow and the sandwich plates in front of Theo and Blaise shake enough for some to slide away on the table.

“Calm down, Ronald. They must have a good reason or I’ll make them a good one.” Ginny cracked his knuckles.

Around a big ministry table, was sitting not only the minister himself, Harry Potter, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott but a few other war heroes: Herbology professor assistant Neville Longbottom, World famous Quidditch player Ginny Weasley, businessmen Ronald and George Weasley and upcoming artist Dean Thomas.

“Why did you call for them, remind me?

\- Yes, why not a handful of experienced aurors when you have a bunch of gryffindors?

\- The government cannot get involved, you know that..” answered Kingsley Shacklebolt, sighing and running a hand through his nonexistent hair. “I will do all I can to give you some weapons and to have a tactical team accompany you to the portal but, unless you...you all get killed, I have no reason or right to interfere.

\- This is why I called some of the Order of the Phoenix-slash-Dumbledore’s army members..” explained Harry. “This are the ones who answered my call.

\- No one else? We need as many people as possible.

\- Seamus is..well, out of commission.” Dean coughed. “He has been for a while…and the others are either in foreign countries, on undercover missions or..

\- Or they’re tired of fighting and don’t want to sign up for more of it.” finished George.

A few minutes of silence went by. Both Theo and Blaise looked around them and understood what he meant by being “tired of fighting”: although they all went to school together, the Gryffindors looked way older than they did. Some of them wearing visible scars such as George’s missing ear while others seem to wear those scars hidden, deep inside themselves. Blaise could see the pain on Dean’s face and remembered someone telling him that Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas had broken up a few months after the war as Seamus had taken to drinking so much people didn’t remember what he was like when he was sober. Theo looked at Harry Potter’s fidgety hands, George Weasley’s depressed expression and Ginny Weasley’s hand holding her wand so tight that her knuckles were white.

 _“They’re just kids.. a bunch of damaged kids.”_ he thought to himself before asking: “So, how are we going to save them?”

“Do you think he’s okay?” muttered Hermione to Pansy. Her friend shrugged but she could see that the small brunette was worried. They didn’t know how much time had passed since they were first thrown into this cell but both agreed that at least two days had gone by. “I wish there was a way to talk to him.” groaned Pansy. “At least to know if..If he knows if..well Theo and Blaise are, you know, okay..” Hermione searched in her head for a while, reciting all of the spells and charms she knew. “If only I could hear his voice like I did on our way here..” she thought to herself until an idea finally came to her. Clapping her hands, “That’s it!” she said out loud.

“Pansy, did you learn legilimency?” The other witch, puzzled, answered: “We all do, a bit. To protect ourselves, you know..

\- Have you ever tried to project your thoughts into someone else’s head?

\- No, i don’t think it works..I learned to protect my mind not to invade others.

\- But Draco did!

\- What do you mean?” Both sat straighter, legs crossed, facing each other. “Remember when I used to hear his voice on our way here? - Yes but what does it..Oh are you kidding me? Why would he try to communicate with you and not one of us? no offense but..

\- None taken. I actually asked him the same thing but we realized he did it in his sleep. But if he could do it unconsciously, maybe you could do it too!” Pansy scratched her head, got up and began to pace around: “I don’t know, Granger..To do something like that, you need to have a strong connection with the recipient and we..well I did but he didn’t, you know so..Oh.”

She stopped pacing around and turned towards Hermione, a devilish smile in her face. “But you do.” she pointed at the other witch, laughing.

“What do you mean? me and Malfoy hate each other!” cried Hermione, avoiding Pansy’s hazelnut eyes. The other witch snorted and asked “Are you sure? you don’t seem to hate each other at night, holding hands and shit. And you are already fighting like a real couple. That’s it, you have to do it.

\- But..I don’t know how.” reluctantly answered Hermione, not liking the idea to try one of the rare things she didn’t learn in the Hogwarts’ classrooms. “And I don’t have my wand, it’s impossible..

\- Well Granger, you’re going to have to shut up and to tap into a much older magic.

\- Which one?

\- Love.”

An hour passed and Hermione Granger’s head was hurting so much she was considering banging it against the wall.

“Concentrate..

\- That’s what I’m doing!

\- Well, concentrate more!

\- Leave me alone! I’m trying my best, for fucks’ sakes!!” a few red sparkles came out of the tip of her fingers. “That’s it! Concentrate on that despair!

\- I’ll fucking give you some despair if you keep going, Parkinson!” she threatened the other witch, her fists clenched. Suddenly, she felt a wave of energy, as if she had gone through some sort of energy field.

 _“Malfoy!!.. Malfoy… Please… Draco!!..”_ she pretty much screamed inside her head but no answer at all was coming back. She was about to give up and cut the link between them when she heard his voice:

_“Granger?_

_\- Drac..Malfoy!_

_\- Am I dreaming?_

_\- No, no! I stole this idea from you actually! Are you okay? Where are you?_

_\- She locked me in her suits and basically plays house with me, pretending I’m here because I want to. Other than that, I’m okay. you? are you with Pansy?_

_\- She's fine. Do you have news from Blaise and Theo? She told us they were gone but.._

_\- No, she’s right. That girl that danced with Theo, Anya, brought me my lunch yesterday and told me she had been the one helping them. - Thank the gods..Draco.._

_\- Hermione.._

_\- What are we going to do ?_

_\- I don’t know, Granger..I might just marry her so she lets you leave._

_\- Don’t you dare Drac..”_

Someone knocked on their cell door. Hermione could feel that she wasn’t linked to Draco anymore. _“Never sit down when the enemy’s here.”_ she thought to herself before quickly getting up.

Zara, Athalia’s right hand, closed the door behind her with her hip as her hands were full. “I.. I managed to convince her that a few blankets and clean clothes wouldn’t help you escape.” she declared, staring at her shoes. She put the pile of clothing she had in her hands right in the middle of the room and finally looked at Hermione.

“I don’t know what to say...She.. Athalia wasn’t like that before..

\- If you think she has lost her mind, why don’t you help us leave?” spat Pansy. Zara looked as if she was thinking about it for a few seconds but then shook her head and said: “My allegiance is to my Queen but also to the realm. I can’t.. I just can’t help you that way.” Hermione smiled sadly at her as she knew where she came from. “I know it’s difficult for you but you must understand Draco better than anyone, with what you went through. The Queen cannot force Draco to marry her and give her children. It’s nothing short of slavery and assault. We have no wands to defend ourselves our to attack anybody. She could easily kill us to keep her perfect image of this place and nobody would ever find our bodies. I don’t think you’re a bad person, Hell, I don’t even think she is. There’s just a lot at stake, isn’t there? If you help us, we will rush to help Draco and your queen won’t have children with him. If you don’t, we die and this marks the beginning of a war between our people and yours. Please, think about it. I beg you..”

Zara stared at Hermione for a while (Pansy could see tears forming in the veela’s eyes) before nodding silently and leaving.

“Well, that was interesting.” snorted Pansy. Seeing Hermione’s puzzled expression, she laughed even harder. “Come on, that woman has big gay crush on you. You know that, don’t you?”

Hermione shrugged, not wanting to go further into it, and didn’t answer. “Let’s hope that crush is going to play in our favor.” continued Pansy. The witches made some sort of bed from the blankets they were given and used the clothes as pillows. Both quickly fell asleep, not knowing how or when they would get out of there.

Hermione found herself on a beach. The weather felt like fall, Hermione’s favorite season, with the wind gently brushing away the hair on her face and the waves loudly crashing on the rocks nearby. The sand was of a beautiful white color, the water deep blue and a few clouds could be seen in the sky but nothing that could ruin this beautiful scenery. Mesmerized by the water, she sat down on the sand, wrapping her white woolen cardigan around her. She ran her fingers through the sand, closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to fully appreciate the smell of the sea. “Is this my dream or yours?” She felt him sit next to her, closer than they had ever been. Taking a peak at him, she felt breathless: his blond hair was golden thanks to the sunset sun, his cheeks pinkish from the wind, his grey eyes twinkling like the foamy sea in front of them. He looked back at her and smiled.

“You have never smiled at me.” she blurted. “Neither have you.” he simply answered. She shrugged and he childishly did too.

“Are you okay, Granger?” he dragged himself on the sand to be closer to her. She leaned on his shoulder and answered: “I think I am.. I just.. I just want all of this to be over.” He nodded and, after a few seconds of silence, he whispered: “This is nice.

\- What?

\- Being here. with you. I wish we could stay like that forever.” he whispered again. She felt her face get red so she got up and walked towards the sea. She heard him follow her right after.

“I’ve never shared a dream with anyone.” she told him. “Makes me wonder what is different.

\- What do you mean?

\- Like, would you feel the cold if you fell in the water?

\- Not even in my dreams would I want to mess up my hair, Granger. Not even for you. Oh really?” she asked, cheekily, bending over to put her hand in the water. Her white long dress was already wet to her knees and his beige pants were not in a better condition.

“Granger, don’t you dare.” he said with an equally scared and menacing tone in his voice. She threw some water at him and wet his white shirt. “So? Do you feel it?

\- I don’t know, Granger. You should also try.” he replied before using both of his hands to throw water at her.

Both giggling, they fought around in the water, getting wetter by the minute. As Hermione was running away after running her wet hands through his hair, he caught her by the waist with his left arm and held her against him. Their wet clothes were sticking to their skin and sticking them together but both didn’t care about it at all. In fact, they seemed completely lost in each other’s eyes, not even minding the waves crashing on their knees. Draco used his free hand to take a few hairs stuck on Hermione’s face off. As he saw her shivering when he did that, the young man rested his hand on her cheek. They both look at each other with some sort of longing that neither of them had ever experienced.

“I don’t want this to end.” he whispered, staring at her lips. “This is not real, Draco..” she replied, now holding back her tears. “I so want this to be real but..

\- If it’s real for us, isn’t it enough?” he spoke softly, pulling her closer to him and his face closer to hers. Hermione was about to close the distance when she realized that the waves had stopped crashing on the beach. In fact, the water was frozen even though she could still feel it around her legs. As she looked around, she could see the seagulls frozen in the sky.

“Draco.. Something’s not right.” she stated. However, she quickly realized she now was alone in the water, the Slytherin nowhere to be seen. As she began to cry, she heard his voice, loud and clear: “Wake up, Granger! Potter is here!”

Startled, she suddenly woke up when the door of her cell was closing again. Someone had been in there while they were sleeping. She shook Pansy’s shoulders to wake her up: “Pans’! Pansy! Wake up! Wake up!” Pansy groaned and turned her back to Hermione: “whaaaat...it’s not like we have anywhere to be..lemmesleephmm…” Hermione looked at the door and saw that something was on the floor, right in front of it. Standing up, she saw it was a single green sweater. As she took it in her hands, a paper and two wands fell out of it. Shocked, she took the paper and began to read:

_“Equal chances._

_Z.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it!  
> Help me achieve my goal of 200 kudos and 100 comments before the end of this story!  
> Thank you again so much for your support. Be safe.


	19. Home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, well, well. It's time for me to give excuses again about why I haven't posted in a while.  
> I have several, which includes being bitten by a mosquito in my hand and have an allergy to it which lasted a week, but i won't annoy you with it.  
> I hope you like it !!

Armed to their teeth, Theo and Blaise led the Gryffindors through the forest, towards the portal. Puffing, Blaise was quite amazed with the other wizards’ physical strength. They had been on the road for a week now and had walked straight without stopping for two whole days and none of them had said a word or broke a sweat. The weird bunch of wizards had almost arrived to the portal when Blaise heard Theo crack his neck. 

“Potter, we’ve been walking for two days straight. We’re almost there but we should rest for the night. 

\- No, Hermione is..

\- She’s not going to go anywhere. And we need our strength if we are going to fight. 

\- Harry, he’s right.” Ginny put a hand on her fiance’s arm and nodded at Blaise. 

“Let’s find a place to set up camp.” George clapped his hands together. 

Later in the night, while most of them were asleep, George was the last one to stand guard.  Sitting on the floor in front of the tents, he was drawing a new idea for a inkless multi-color quill on a small notebook. He could only hear the sound of his breathing and sometimes snoring from inside the tents. As his back was starting to hurt, George got up and started to stretch up when he heard a whisper coming from the trees. 

“George… Geooooorgey….” 

Shaking his head, he convinced himself he was hallucinating. A frown on his face, he knew that fatigue was making him hear things so he opened the door of the first tent to ask for someone to take his place when he heard the voice again: “Georgey, come on, you can’t be deaf, you still got that ear left.”  Sticking out his wand in front of him, he yelled: “Where are you? How can you do that?”. His voice was shaky and he could feel tears rolling down his cheeks. 

“Whatever you hear, it’s not real.” 

Looking behind him, Theo was coming out of one of the tents, rubbing his eyes. 

“What?..what do you mean?” George was now trembling. “I..I just..

\- You heard someone, didn’t you? It happened to all of us. I guess we’re closer than I thought we were.

\- And what the blooming heck is it? 

\- We don’t really know but it’s just sick. I guess it’s to make people lose their mind before they even try to get in.

\- I see.. It sounded just like him.. just like him..”

Theo put a hand on George’s back and patted awkwardly. “I’m..I’m sorry about your loss. We all lost our fair share of people. Let’s not lose any more, shall we?”  George nodded and, still shaking, went inside the tent without another word. 

When George got back up after a troubled hour or two of sleep, all the others were already ready to go, eating a few sausages that Neville was cooking on the fire. 

As they were packing up the camp and hiding their camping material in bushes, Theo coughed and said: “We should probably warn you. As we get closer to the portal, you might hear..well, you might hear voices.

\- What do you mean?” asked Ginny, both of her hands on her hips. “Are we going to lose our shit on this mission?

\- Well you won’t if you do as we say. No matter whose voice you hear, and trust me, it will make you hear the voice of the person you miss the most, you cannot lose your shit.” he air-quoted. 

Ron looked at him, frowned and then laughed: “It’s a trap, isn’t it? You’re just making shit up so we do what YOU want!

\- Why would I..

\- Weasley, he’s right..

\- Oh yes, come on. I don't trust anything that come out of your mouth! You ran away and left Hermione there!

\- Weasley, we told you it wasn’t our..

\- Ron..Ron, I...RONALD!” screamed George which surprised everyone else as he had been weirdly quiet. “He’s telling the truth.

\- What?

\- I heard it last night.

\- What did you hear?” ask Harry, getting closer to George. 

“I heard Fred’s voice.” George swallowed a sob and turned his back to the group, in time for tears to roll freely down his face. Quickly, he felt Ginny’s small but strong arms around his waist. “It’s alright, brother..it’s alright..” she said, trying to calm him down even though he could feel his younger sister’s body shake against his. 

A few minutes of silence went by before Neville whispered: “what kind of sick psycho would do that?

\- I guess we’ll find out.” groaned Ron, cracking his knuckles, after furiously wiping away a tear.

Going through the portal was as horrible as the first time, Blaise thought to himself. By the time they were in front of the burning tree, all the gryffindors’ faces were red from sadness and anger. The wizard could swear Ginny Weasley would kill anyone that would dare to stand in her way while, oddly enough, the great Harry Potter seemed very calm for someone who had lost that many people. 

Taking a big breath in, Harry looked at his companions and gave his orders: “Neville and Ron, try to find Hermione and Parkinson. From what Theo and Blaise said, they might be held together while Draco will surely be in the Queen’s headquarters. 

\- Remember where we said they might be?

\- Yes, grey building near the lake. 

\- Or the caves near the white house. 

\- Once you have them, use the coins to send a signal and get them out of there. The rest of us will take care of finding Malfoy.” 

All of them nodded once and went through the portal, landing swiftly on the flowery and green soil of the Veela Realm. 

As soon as they arrived, Dean felt like he was in one of those muggle movies he liked about spaceships and intergalactic wars. Spells and arrows flew in their direction and, Dean didn’t know if it was the adrenaline or magic doing it, he could see them pass by him in slow motion. Closing his eyes for a second, he jokingly thought to himself “may the force be with us..or whatever.” before attacking back the veelas, goblins and wizards who had waited for their arrival by the portal. 

The Hogwarts alumni managed to fight their way to what looked like an outside dining hall, thanks to Ginny’s anger against a veela who had managed to burn a bit of her hair with a flaming arrow. The redhead threw such a powerful Oppugno that some of their opponents were now bleeding profusely from the birds’ attack and therefore backing up, trying to get rid of them. 

“Ron! Neville! Go!” yelled Harry as more armored Veelas were appearing out of nowhere. 

Dean could see that most of the residents seemed to not be hostile and decided to run away as soon as the conflict exploded. “Do not hurt civilians!” he told the others. “Attack only those who attack us first!” and so they did, the six of them fighting more than twenty soldiers. 

Hermione could hear the commotion happening outside their door. Finally reunited with her wand, she looked at Pansy and asked: “Ready?

\- As I’ll ever be.” and with a Bombarda Maxima, the Slytherin exploded their cell door. 

Thankfully, the fight outside seemed to have called their jailers’ attention and nobody stopped them on their way out. The cave corridors seemed to be endless and they kept running and running until Hermione ran straight into someone else. 

“Granger!” 

Hermione felt two strong hands grab her arms. Looking up, she was met with a pair of grey worried eyes. “Are you guys okay? Pans’?

\- We’re fine. How did you girls get out?

\- Zara. You?

\- That Anya girl. You have wands? 

\- Yes.

\- Well, I’ll find something. Come on!” and he grabbed their hands and ran towards the dining hall. 

The fight was still going on and Hermione could see that Harry, George, Ginny, Dean, Theo and Blaise had managed to injure a few soldiers of the Queen. The three of them got separated as soon as they arrived in the heart of the fight. 

As Hermione could see a Veela coming from behind Ginny with a knife on her hand, she let out a scream and ran, pointing her wand at the soldier who quickly flew and hit against a large pine tree. Not far, Blaise looked at Hermione with a grin and yelled “Yes, Granger! Where’s...AAAAAH” a goblin had managed to run into him with a large bat and hit him in his lower back, making him fall on his knees. 

“You short and ugly little fuck!” Hermione could hear Pansy yell before she heard a large exploding noise and saw the goblin hit the same tree the Veela had before. 

Her and Ginny quickly found themselves back to back, surrounded by a bunch of scary looking Veelas: “You okay, Hermione?

\- Yes! Thanks for.. Brachialigo! 

\- Did you see Ron or Neville?

\- Ron is here?

\- Yes! They went looking for ya..take that, you lavender-smelling scum!” 

Looking around her, she could see everyone but Neville and Ron. If they wanted to leave quickly without causing any more damage, they had to find them quickly. As she turned around, she could see Ron running towards them, bleeding from the shoulder. 

“Ron!

\- Mione! 

\- Are you okay? Where’s Nev..Impedimenta!” she screamed as a Veela tried to behead Ron from behind. 

“Thanks ‘Mione!” before he ran towards his friends to help. 

Not far from them, Pansy was fighting side by side with George when the centaur who gave them their jobs everyday ran by towards a bleeding Veela. Without putting much thought into it, George pointed his wand at the centaur and chanted “Incarcerous!”, making ropes appear out of thin air and tie themselves around the centaur’s legs, making him lose his balance and crash on the floor. 

“No!!! He’s not a threat!!” cried Pansy, running towards the centaur. “I didn’t know!” she could hear George cry before he turned to fight a goblin. Kneeling down on the floor, she began to disentangle the ropes. “I’m sorry, i’m sorry..” while the centaur let out a cry as the ropes kept on tightening more and more around his legs. “we just wanted to save our friend, i’m sorry…” Pansy didn’t know why she was feeling so sorry for this centaur but she knew that, as a peaceful species, he didn’t deserve being treated that way. Once she managed to get him free from the ropes, the centaur got back up and put his arms on her shoulders: “What you seek is within your own bloodline. There is strength in sharing the same pain. Especially in the same bloodline!” he added before galloping away. “Hey! Don’t go! Nora? Is it Nora?” Pansy screamed but the centaur was already out of sight. 

Dean could not feel his legs anymore but he kept fighting as well as he could, trying to not let emotions and memories of the war get the best of him. After all, this was nothing compared to the war, he thought to himself. As he believed he had finally managed to put down the blonde veela he had been fighting against, he close his eyes and took a large breath but, in the space of a second, someone crashed on the floor in front of him. Theodore Nott had jumped in front of him, just in time to get hit by the blonde veela’s arrow instead of him. 

“Rictusempra!” he threw at the Veela before kneeling down besides the now profusely bleeding from the leg slytherin boy. “Nott, why did you do that?

\- I couldn’t let her...ugh..it hurts..

\- Come on, man..let’s get out of here.” Dean managed to put Theo on his back even though he was way taller than him and began to walk out of the conflict.

“Ginny! I’m leaving with Nott!” he yelled to the redhead who gave him a sign with her hand before making a large table explode. From the corner of her eye, she could see Dean and Theo disappearing into the woods. 

Ginny was pissed but also feeling more alive than ever, for the first time in a while. Being an internationally acclaimed Quidditch player had its perks but she missed her friends and family and, above all, she missed having a cause to fight for. After making just another tenacious goblin fly away from a flick of her wand, she searched for Harry. Near the White House, she saw her boyfriend call for Malfoy as soon as he appeared: “Malfoy! Take that!” and throw him a wand which the fellow seeker caught swiftly. 

“Potter, get them out as soon as you can!

\- what? And you?

\- I need to find that bitch!” She heard him respond.

Malfoy looked white with anger, (“even whiter than usual”, she snickered to herself). Standing like a statue at the bottom of the stairs, she could see him from the corner of her eyes look for someone in the fighting crowd. 

“Of course, you would let your people fight your battles.. Athalia, Come out!” He yelled, his voice strangely echoing in the forest. 

As soon as he said those words, a huge explosion made everybody stop what they were doing. The Queen, standing at the top of the stairs behind Malfoy, was holding Neville with one claw and a dagger with the other, putting it on Neville’s throat. 

“Neville!

\- You bitch!

\- Neville! Let him go!

\- I’m sorry, Harry. I couldn’t find them and I lost Ron on the way so I went to the White House like you said and then she got me when I tried to find Malf..

\- Shut up.” groaned Queen Athalia, pressing the dagger on his neck, a few drops of blood sprinkling. 

“What do you want? leave him alone!” screamed Ginny. The Queen let out a bitter laugh and tightened her grasp around Neville’s neck: “What do I want? You dare to come to my home and attack people under my protection and ask what I want? 

\- You kidnapped our friends!

\- I did no such thing, Harry Potter. From what I know, you were never friends with any of the Slytherins and Miss Granger was free to go. In fact, she was welcome to.” added Queen Athalia, staring directly at Hermione. 

Suddenly, Hermione heard someone gasp on her left. A wand on her back and another a wide sword on her neck, Zara looked terrified as she was being held against her will by none other than Draco Malfoy. “Draco, no!” yelled Hermione. She ran towards him but was held back by Blaise and Pansy. 

“I’m sorry Zara but if your Queen values your life, she will let my friend go.” responded Draco, his eyes fixed on Athalia. His voice was weirdly stable and cold for someone threatening the life of another person but, as much as he hated to admit it, Ron Weasley thought that Draco Malfoy looked very cool. 

“Your friend? From what I know, the Longbottoms and the Malfoy fought on opposing sides.” The Queen smirked. “Do you really care for the life of a blood traitor?

\- I have learned from my mistakes, bitch. You are holding one of the greatest heroes of the Wizarding War against his will. Do you really think that the Wizarding Community will let you live in peace if you spill his blood? Or any of theirs, really? You’re worried about succession and marriage, I’d be worried about keeping that pretty head of yours on your shoulders.” laughed Draco, strengthening his grasp around Zara’s neck. “I won’t hesitate to cut her head off. Let them leave, all of them.

\- What about you?” Hermione could have sworn she had seen a flicker of hope brighten the Queen’s eyes.

Draco simply responded, with a very low voice: “I’ll stay.” 

The Hogwarts alumni gasped. Hermione felt like her heart had been stamped on a thousand times. 

“I’ll stay and kill or turn every single one of your subjects against you until you give me what I’m due.”

Her eyes wide open in shock, Athalia asked “After all this time, you’re still after that spell? Your mother died!

\- I’ll find other used to it.” Draco muttered and George could have sworn he had looked at Hermione.

After a few seconds of reflection, the Queen slowly pushed Neville down the stairs, who, stumbling, was quickly caught by Ron. 

Athalia looked sad. Nothing else could describe what Hermione was seeing on her face other than sadness. Slowly, she went back up the stairs and looked back one more time:

“I don’t have it.

\- what?

\- My last husband took it from me. I have nothing to offer you besides myself..which you obviously do not want.”

She took one more teary look at Draco before looking at all of them: “I would like all of you to leave. Let them go.” she whispered that last sentence before going back inside.

All, wizards and Veela Realm soldiers alike, looked lost. While they had been fighting to death until a few minutes ago, now that they had no reason to fight, all stood there, waiting for someone to make the first move.

Draco Malfoy did. He threw the sword on the floor and slightly pushed Zara away. 

She looked at him and said: “Jakob Wiesinger. Now go.

\- Zara, I…

\- Go. And never come back.” 

Holding each other, the strange Gryffindor/Slytherin group walked together back to the portal. Hermione stopped behind the group to look at the realm, one last time. 

“Accio purse”. She waited. Her purple bag came out flying from the cave they had used as a home the last weeks. Turning her back to the realm one last time, she was met with Ron waiting for her.

The last time she had seen him, she had behaved like a monster. She knew there will always be hundreds of reasons why Ronald Weasley will always frustrate her and ultimately why they could never be together again but nothing gave her the right to behave like she did.

Trying to go across a few fallen trees on the path, she stopped walking and really looked at Ron for the first time in what felt like a thousand years.

“Ron, I…”

He smiled and extended an hand. “I know.

\- Ron, no, this is not me asking to go back together.” He laughed and put his hands on each side of his hips, very much like Ginny always did. “Not everything I do is to get into your pants, Hermione Granger.” He pointed at her left knee and said “Try getting over this trunk with your leg like that.” 

Looking down at it, she saw that she had a wide and deep cut in her knee which kept bleeding profusely. Surprised and a little bit ashamed, she laughed quietly and took his hand.  “We’ll take care of it as soon as we’re on the other side of the portal.” he told her, his cheeks and nose still pink from the battle. All limping, they walked slowly in silence, sometimes looking behind them as if it was too good to be true to leave this place all alive.

Hermione kept looking at Ron, trying to find the right words. 

Stopping once again, she tugged on his hand and said: “Ron, I...Nothing I say will make up for what I did to you the last time we met. I am sorry. You didn’t deserve it.”

He looked at her for a while, as if he was seeing her for the first time and replied: “I’m sorry too that you had to go to that extent to make me understand what you’re feeling. I will always get on your nerves, ‘mione, I know it but I would appreciate if we could try talking about it before using our hands.” he laughed sadly. “I.. I’m going to get help. I talked with George and we both promised each other to go see a mind healer. I want to be able to leave and go see the world without being scared to death that my family and friends might die every second. I want to be a good business partner and brother to George, I have a lot of ideas!!” He said, his eyes shining with hope and excitement. “And..well.. I want to be able to..to fall in love again and this time, have a healthier go at it.” he whispered, his cheeks now as red as a tomato. Hermione knew that Ron was smart and outspoken in his own way but hearing him talk about his feelings and his hopes and dreams in such a raw way for the first time was refreshing and heartbreaking for her at the same time. She squeezed his hand and, trying to stop incoming tears, whispered “Oh Ron..”. He held his free hand in front of her as if he was telling her that he wasn’t done talking: “I want you to do the same. If you want me to forgive you, I want you to see a mind healer. And then, I want you to be happy, to fall in love and do everything you want to do in life. And I hope I’ll be by your side..as your best friend. And I hope you will be by my side, as mine.” he said, silent tears rolling on his cheeks. 

Shaken by so many emotions at once, Hermione silently nodded and hugged the tall redhead, squeezing him as hard as she could while he buried his face into her hair and sobbed. “Promise me you’ll try?” he whispered in her ear between two sobs to which she breathed “I will”. 

One week later, she was sitting in front of the fire at Grimmauld Place, a cup of tea in her hand. Her knee still hurt but she was simply glad to be alive and well with all of her friends back home. After coming home, she had corresponded with the Slytherins once, as Pansy asked her to come for moral support to the ministry as she and her cousin Nora, officially file a complaint against Wagner and his friends for sexual assault. After coming back to London, Pansy had rushed to her cousin’s house and begged her to tell her the truth. Nora had then admitted to having kept the dress she was wearing that night and had put a spell on it to keep all the DNA fresh until she, one day, found the courage to talk about it. 

As Wagner and his friends were not british citizens, it would take longer to resolve but the lawyers and aurors they had met with had assured them that they had high hopes to see them one day pay for their actions. Harry had promised Pansy that he would use his name and fame to see it to the end. Pansy, Nora and Blaise had taken both of them to diner and promised to keep in touch. After all, had Blaise said, people do not fight a war without becoming friends for life. 

Hermione had not heard of Theo nor Draco since they had come back to London. She wasn’t expecting a Thank you but she would have never thought that they would disappear on her like that, after all that they’ve been through, she shrugged to herself. 

The last time she had seen Theodore Nott, he had reminded her of that date she had promised her and hugged her before disapparating right in front of her. Next to him, Draco Malfoy had looked at both of them, his eyes wide open with surprise, before quickly going back to his stoic face, had nodded towards her and disapparated. 

The idea of going on a date with Theo was now ridiculous but “A promise is a promise” she thought to herself. Still, she hoped that the man would get busy for a very long time and forget all about it. 

When it came to Draco Malfoy, well.. she was happy the way she was. The day they had come back to London, Hermione was already thinking of leaving as soon as possible but Harry and Ginny had beg her to at least spend the holidays with them so she had been staying for the past week at Grimmauld Place, reading and spending time with Harry, Ginny and Ron, with frequent visits from Neville, Dean and even sometimes Luna. She was somehow glad to be home even if she knew that, soon or later, she would have to either face her problems as she had promised Ron or run away again. Until she made that choice, she didn’t want to have to worry about boys. 

As soon as she thought that, Ginny came into the living room and threw herself on the sofa, next to Hermione. “There’s a bouquet of flowers in the kitchen.” she announced.

Smiling, Hermione looked at her friend and said “I didn’t know Harry was romantic.” 

Ginny snorted and replied: “Oh he’s not, thanks Merlin. It’s for you, this was attached to it.”, giving her a letter. 

“I’m surprised it’s not open.” she shuckled. 

“Oh your brother tried but I threatened him of a very public, full of journalists wedding and put it right back where he found it.” Ginny smirked. 

For the past week, all of her friends had begun to talk about Harry and Hermione as brother and sister, to get used to the idea even though Hermione had yet to sign the papers. She had secretly decided to do it on Christmas Day and offer them to Harry as a present. 

Opening the letter, she felt a pinch in her heart when she saw it wasn’t the handwriting she was hoping for. This one was very doctor-like, italic and quite difficult to read:

_ “Hermione,  _

_ I hope this finds you well. I have been busy organizing Narcissa’s funeral and trying to keep Draco sane so I hope you will forgive me for the radio silence this past week.  _

_ I would like to ask you to join me for dinner tomorrow night. If you’re free, I will pick you up at 7.  _

_ Yours,  _

_ Theo.”  _

Cheek to cheek, the two girls read in silence before Ginny quickly got up on the sofa, clapped her hands and said: “YES! he’s hot. I approve.” Frowning, Hermione replied: “I don’t need your approval, Ginerva.” to which she got a cushion thrown in her face as an answer. 

“Low blow, Hermione Granger, calling me by my full name. I’m thinking of changing it officially to Ginny when I marry four-eyes.. but..” she sat back down, seeing the frown on Hermione’s face. “This is not about me.. Hey, you okay?” she pat her friends’ knee. 

Still staring at the letter, Hermione muttered: “I..I don’t know.”

Ginny crossed her legs facing her friend and stared at her. “I saw the disappointment in your face when you opened the letter.” Hermione didn’t say anything. She continued: “Were you hoping for somebody else’s letter?” 

Hermione slowly folded the letter and put it on the coffee table before staring at the fire. 

“I...I promised Theo I would go on a date once we brought Malfoy home safely.

\- Oh, cool..I mean, it’s cool if you want it to. You don’t owe them anything, nevertheless a date. 

\- I know but Theo is.. Theo is nice. He’s handsome, smart and kind.”

\- But you do not like him. 

\- I do.

\- But not like you like that other person.

\- Hmm.

\- That other person who is Malfoy.”

Startled, Hermione jumped and stood in front of Ginny, almost knocking her cold tea off the coffee table. “I.. I didn’t.. is that obvious? how do you know? I don’t even know myself!” she cried, hiding her face behind her hands. Ginny chuckled and gently made her friend sit back down: “Listen, it’s going to sound weird but just roll with it: If you didn’t know his family, if you didn’t have a shared past, if you didn’t fight wars on opposite sides, would you be attracted by him? Would you think he is a good fit for you?”

Hermione stared at the dancing flames and slowly nodded: “He likes to read, he is very protective of his friends, he fights for what he believe in, even though his values do not align with mine.

\- It’s not about values. It’s about who loved you and how they loved you. We were children, for Merlin’s sakes, everything for us was decided by the adults and we didn’t get a say in it. We fought in their war because they didn’t want to fight it themselves.

\- I know...In a perfect world, I might have fallen for him. We spent so much time alone in the library, sitting in opposite corners, we were always in competition for the first place in all the classes, many of the books I wanted to borrow were already borrowed by him...so yeah.” she shrugged. “If nothing happened and we were just two classmates, I might..I might have liked him.

\- So..what is stopping you?

\- I don’t even know why we are talking about that, it’s not like he has asked me out, nor even said thank you for making me go all over the globe to find him or even contact me since we came home.” puffing, she was now starting to become frustrated.

\- Have you contacted him? 

\- No, why would I? I’m just going to go on a date with Theo to get all of this over with and then..well, then i’ll just close my eyes, point at a map and go where my finger lands on.

\- Or you could stay here with your family..” 

Hermione didn’t respond. 

The next day, Hermione woke up quite early and sat at the kitchen table, one pot of hot coffee and one of ink along a few blank pages laid in front of her. She wrote, crossed sentences, crumbled pages and threw them into the fire for hours, not even noticing Harry and Ginny having breakfast and leaving the house. They had tried to talk to her but she was so immersed that she didn’t even hear. By lunch time, she still wasn’t satisfied with her letter. By 3 in the afternoon, she was sweating and frustrated. “Dear Draco Malfoy...No not dear, that’s weird… Malfoy.. Draco? no, too familiar..” she kept talking out loud, blowing pieces of hair out of her face while scratching her head with the tip of her quill. 

By 5pm, she gave up as she had to get ready for her date with Theo. Ginny had lent her a blue dress the day before and she managed to put her hair up nicely. By 6pm, she was trying to give herself a pep talk in the bathroom mirror when the doorbell rang.

Thinking it might be Ron or a very early Theo, she opened the door. 

“Hmm. You’re busy.

\- How did you get this address? 

\- I asked Potter.

\- Well, come..come in.” 

She invited Malfoy to follow her back inside the house, her heart beating faster than ever. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> I said in one of the previous chapter notes that I would love to reach 200 kudos and a hundred comments and...I have indeed reached the 200 kudos!!!  
> Thank you so much for your support, we still have a few chapters left (my plan right now is 23 chapters total but we might get one or two more.)  
> Have a nice week and be safe!


	20. Second Round

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, last chapter was not as well received as I thought it would. I hope you'll like this one better. Criticism is welcome.

“This is weird.”

He stood in the middle of the living room, looking around. She sat down on the sofa and stared at him. He walked around the room, running his fingers on the furniture, sometimes stopping in front of a random trinket or a picture. 

“What is weird?”

He finally sat down next to her and replied: “This is my ancestral home yet I don't know anything about this place.

\- Oh, right. You’re also a Black. I almost forgot.

\- Easy to forget when I have spent my formative years talking everybody’s ears off about me being a Malfoy.”

She chuckled silently. He smiled for a second before putting back his habitual mask on. 

She waited for him to start talking, for him to tell her why he was here. The ticking of the clock in the corridor was becoming so loud that she suddenly got up, closed the door and sat back down again. 

After what felt like an eternity, she finally asked: “Malfoy, why are you here?” 

He stared at her, with a lost look in his face as if she was the one who had told him to come.  He kept on staring at her, his grey eyes scanning her face for a while before he slightly shook his head and went back to staring in front of him. 

“I.. I wanted to thank you.” he finally said.  “Thank you for putting on hold your whole entire life for months to find me. 

\- You’re welcome.”  Hermione didn’t want his thanks. She didn’t exactly know what she wanted from him but she wanted more. She wanted him to have come here for another reason. After all, he could have thanked her in a letter, she thought to herself. 

“Would you… I would like to buy you dinner. Tonight.” he suddenly said, really quickly, as if he was afraid of his own words. She stopped breathing for a second and then replied:  “I actually have something tonight.” in tone of voice way colder that she wanted it to be. 

His shoulders went down and a simple “Oh.” came out of his mouth. He looked quite disappointed. She wanted to tell him it was something she had to get over with, that if she could, she might have cancelled it just to see where this dinner would lead them. But, at the same time, she was furious; furious that it had taken him a week to give her any sign of life, furious that he just showed up unannounced, expecting her to be home, without any plans for the evening because what would Hermione Granger have in her life besides running around the world to save ungrateful gits, right? 

As her anger started boiling inside of her, she blurted: “I have a date with Theo, actually.” 

To her surprise, he smirked and got up. He walked to the window and stared through it. 

“So you have decided to give him a chance.

\- Yes.” she lied. She wanted to do whatever was in her power to make his blood boil as he was making hers. “After all, i’m single and he is attractive, intelligent and a good person. I don’t see why I shouldn’t.”

He kept his back turned to her and she began to wonder what was so interesting outside. He was back in one of those well-fitted suits she had seen some pictures of in the press, right after the war. The way it hugged his waist and made his shoulders look broader made her even angrier. 

“I suppose him being a pureblood, a snake, a son of a high-rank death eater does not disturb you. 

\- No. It does not. All of those three things were not of his choosing and I can admire a man who leaves his past behind and who can focus on building a future deprived of his own parents’ prejudices.”

He finally dared to look at her again. “But what if, no matter how hard he tries, people still see him as the son of his father? What if what he did in the past still haunts him every day? What if, sometimes, his old ways of thinking still creep out out of the blue? What should he do then to keep you by his side?” 

She stared at his big, haunting grey eyes, controlled her shaky hands and, with a firm voice, answered: “He should try harder.” 

As Hermione was beginning to wonder if they were still talking about Theo, the doorbell rang, echoing in the empty house like a siren. She got up, walked to the front door and, to no surprise, opened it to see Theodore Nott. 

“Hermione, Hello. You look ravishing.

\- Indeed, she does.”

Draco was leaning on the wall right behind her, his infamous smirk back on his face, as if they didn’t just have the heaviest conversation they ever had. 

“Draco.” Theo frowned before forcing himself to smile “What are you doing here, brother?

\- I just came to say hello. 

\- We have to go.” Hermione wanted this awkward conversation to be as short as possible so she grabbed her coat and her purse, invited Draco with a nod of his head to get out of the building and closed the door behind her as quickly as she could.

The boys stared at each other in silence for a while before Draco smiled and said: “I hope you have a lovely evening, kid”. He looked at Hermione and nodded with a simple “Granger.” before, with a dramatic twirl, disapparating right in front of their eyes. 

Rolling his eyes, Theo chuckled and offered her his arm: “Ready to go?”

Forcing a smile, she nodded and they disapparated. 

  
  


When she opened her eyes again, they were in front of.. “The Ritz.” she said out loud.

She looked at Theo and said: “Hmm..quite fancy.” to which he responded, laughing: “Well, you deserve the best.” 

Far from admitting that she hated those kinds of places, she followed him inside. As they were seated at their table, Hermione could not help to wonder why he had chose such an extravagant setting for a first date. 

He smiled at her and said: “I would like us to play a game.

\- What game?

\- Let’s pretend we didn’t spend the last two months together. Let’s pretend we ran into each other at the ministry or something and that I asked an old classmate to dinner.” 

She smiled and nodded. Happy with his own idea, Theo smiled in return and began to unfold his napkin while asking: “So, tell me Hermione, what have you been doing this past year? 

\- I..

\- Besides saving the world, being the brightest witch of our generation, being our future minister of magic and winning all those awards and prizes that come with being who you are.” 

Suddenly uncomfortable, she forced, once again, a smile and joked: “is this a job interview?” to which he answered, winking: “It could be.

\- What?.. well, ahem.. I’ve been traveling. Traveling, studying and writing, yes, that’s what I have been doing. What about you, before.. you know..

\- Oh, so I came back as soon as you saved us to find out that my ancestral home had been used as some sort of Death Eater dormitory so I sold it. I thought about changing my last name too but I decided to keep it and try to give it a new image. 

I want to have my own business, get married as soon as possible and have a thousand children. Tell me, Hermione, what are you looking for in a husband?”

Shocked for a second, thinking she was being tricked for another, she ended up laughing to the point of tears before realizing Theo was not joining her and now looked quite uncomfortable. She asked, between two fits of laughter: “Was the job interview for a position as the new Mrs Nott?”

Theo’s ears became suddenly very red and his smiled sadly: “Well, not right away but..yes. I..I need to move on with my life. I need to build something for myself and..well.. I thought it could be with you.

\- Wh..what? why?” she whispered. She would have never, not in a million years, guessed that their first date would be revolving around them talking about marrying each other. She took her glass of water, looked at it before putting it down. She grabbed the glass of white wine and downed it as quick as she could.

“You are the most amazing, beautiful, intelligent woman I have ever seen. You took care of us during that awful trip to hell, you saved my best friends and me more than once. You.. you forgave us. You, Hermione Granger. You forgave us, the scum of the society.” 

His eyes were now full of adoration which made her even more uncomfortable. “Theo..this is not.. this is not the Theo I know. What is happening?” 

The adoration in his eyes vanished as soon as she said that and he answered very coldly: “Actually, this is the real me. The me that I want you and the rest of the society to know. The Theo you met on the road was heartbroken, grieving a woman that was not even his own mother, scared to death that he might have to grief for the love of his life.”

He began to rearrange the cups, his forks and knives and pretty much everything else on the table. “Now that we are all back, safe and sound, I need to start to live. And if the first step is to court the woman I love, then this is what I’m doing.” 

She laughed. “Theo, come on.. You don’t love me. 

\- I think I know what I feel for you, thank you very much. 

\- Before all of this, I only knew your name, that’s it. We have never talked to each other back at school, we hanged with different crowds, we fought on different sides.

\- I didn’t fight! I didn’t play any role in your war. 

\- That’s one more thing,! one more layer that you wouldn’t understand about me!”

She gently grabbed his hand above the table: “Theo, I don’t know you. You don’t know me. How could you possibly be in love with me? 

\- But I am.

\- You might be infatuated with the Golden Girl you saw on the journals but that is not me. Do you know my favorite book? What was my favorite subject back at school? How i drink my tea? What happened to my parents? you don’t know any of it. And I don’t know those things about you either.”

He looked at her, his eyes full to the brim with tears that wouldn’t dare roll. “I think we would be good together..

\- Maybe. But isn’t it better to be friends and see where this leads us? You might meet an incredible woman one day and forget all about me.. Or an amazing man that will make you forget about me AND Malfoy.”

He laughed and squeezed her hand: “I’m sorry, Hermione. I don’t know what took over me. I guess, I… seeing you as our savior during the war and then you coming to our help when we went to look for Draco..I thought that being with you would make me feel safe and, maybe..save me from myself. I thought that maybe I could charm you with all..” he looked around him “all of this.”

Suddenly getting up of her seat, Hermione said: “Let’s get out of here.

\- We haven’t eaten yet!

\- I’ll pay for half. Or do you think they would mind if we asked for doggy bags?”

The shocked expression on Theo’s face made her laugh even harder. She took the wizard by the arm and disapparated him right outside the hotel.  When they landed in an unknown street, Theo looked down at his feet and said: “Our date lasted a whole 20 minutes. That was more than I expected.” She took his arm and said “Now our friend date can start.” before making him walk into a small restaurant. 

“One Tuna Kimbap, one Tteokbokki and one soondae please.” 

Fifteen minutes later, Theodore Nott looked at the food in front of him and asked: “What the hell is this?

\- South Korean comfort food.

\- What is your plate? What is mine?

\- We share everything. 

\- from the same plate? 

\- Yes. Shut up and eat, Nott.” 

She looked at him grab a spicy rice cake with his chopsticks, examine it and carefully put it in his mouth. He chewed for a while, his expression changing every six seconds before becoming very red and making big signs for water. 

Laughing to tears, she grabbed a cup of water from the self bar and gave it to him. He drank it as fast as he could before saying between two coughs: “Granger..this is so…

\- Spicy? 

\- yes but good.” he smiled. “What’s that? I won’t eat that. Ew. No.” he kept refusing, shaking his head, closing his mouth as hard as he could while Hermione tried to force a piece of soondae in his mouth. 

She laughed, gave up and put it in hers. She closed her eyes and savored it before laughing again after seeing Theo’s expression. “It’s soondae, some sort of blood sausage.”

After explaining to him how he could dip the sausage in either salt and pepper or the spicy sauce from the tteokbokki, both started to finally relax and enjoy their food.

After a few moments of content silence, Theo asked: “Did you spend the day with Draco?

\- Theo…

\- No, it’s okay. I need to get used to this.” he pointed back and forth between them with his chopsticks. “the friendship thing.

\- Well, no. I was home all day. He appeared out of nowhere around an hour before you arrive.

\- Will you give him a chance?” he asked, a sad smile on his face. 

She sighed and leaned back on the wall behind her. “I don’t know, Theo. Some part of me wants something more but some part of me wants him to show me he can be something more than whatever I have always known him to be. Besides, I need to take care of myself; my mental health, where do I go from here, what I want to do.. 

\- So it’s not just me. 

\- No, it’s not just you.” She smiled and he smiled too. 

“I spent the day with Dean Thomas today.” he suddenly blurted out of the blue. 

Surprised, she almost choked on a roll of kimbap: “What? Why? 

\- Well, after I saved him and he saved me and…” his face was starting to go from pink to red really quick. “We became friends.” 

Hermione giggled with joy and said “Why even go on a date with me when you are already so infatuated with Dean ? 

\- It’s not easy to love men in our society..” he answered sadly, looking down at his knees. “It would have been easier to have the Golden Girl by my side, for example!” 

She was beginning to feel uncomfortable again but he quickly laughed and added “Too soon for a joke?

\- Never. Or maybe, just not tonight? ” she answered laughing. “Tell me about your day with Dean, then. Come on!

\- Well, he took me to lunch in a small restaurant in Brighton, we walked by the pier and then we went to his atelier and showed me his latest pieces. Did you know his favorite artist is Jacob Lawrence? I thought he would be more of a Beauford Delaney fan…..” and they talked for one more hour until their plates were spotless and it became a bit awkward again. 

Outside the restaurant, snow had begun to fall and a cold wind made Hermione’s dress dance. “Well, this was interesting.” Theo said, his hands in his pockets. 

She laughed and said “I like the outcome, don’t you? 

\- I’m not sure yet that I do.. It’s quite scary.

\- I’ll be by your side as your friend, every step of the way.” she reassured him before kissing him on the cheek. “You never forget that, Theodore Nott. You’ve got a friend in me.” 

As she reapparated in front of Grimmauld Place, Hermione was feeling happy and with her head way clearer than she had felt ever before. 

As much as both of them had felt something towards each other, they had both come to the conclusion that he had felt that towards the Golden Girl while she had seen in him what she wished she could see in another. Theo had promised her that he would do his best to win Dean’s heart even if it meant to fight Seamus while he had made her promise to talk to Draco Malfoy and see where it would go. Promising herself that she would owl him first thing in the morning, she went up the stairs and opened the front door. 

“We have taken enough of their time! We’ll sort it out ourselves!

\- Oh come on! Don’t tell me you think that if you can sort it out yourself” the masculine voice over articulated the last four words. “that he will come back to you and not to her??! That’s why you don’t want to be with me isn’t it?” he yelled. 

A third voice could be heard saying “Guys..come on..” before the first voice replied, crying: “Are you fucking kidding me? I could steal the moon and he would still go back to her!”

She knew that whatever conversation was going on in the kitchen, would probably end as soon as she opened the door so she stood there, quietly listening.

“Remember those journals she had with her on the road? they weren’t the only ones! I went to his room after he left to look for clues and all I found was journals dating back from Hogwarts, letters he had began to write to her as soon as he had been declared free by the ministry to ask her out to dinner..He was always about her. Even when we dated, I could see how he looked at her!

\- But you still think that, by saving him, you could get him, right? That’s why you don’t want to involve them, right?”

At that same moment, the kitchen door opened and Hermione found herself looking at a visibly uncomfortable George. Seeing that it was her, he let out a sigh of relief and said: “Look who’s home!” before kissing her on the cheek and sitting back down.

Around the kitchen table was Ginny, Harry, George and a very angry Pansy while an equally angry Blaise was standing up, leaning on the fireplace. All of them looked at her and began to talk at once like an out of tune orchestra. She brought her fingers to her mouth and whistled as loud as she could. “What’s happening? Why are you here? 

\- We..

\- They came and

\- Hermione..

\- One at the time! You, you seem calm. Go ahead.” she pointed at Ginny. 

“They arrived screaming, demanding to see you. We told them you weren’t here so they said they would wait. Then they began to fight and we still don’t know why they’re here but I have an idea, I think…

\- Draco is gone.” cried Pansy, slamming her hands on the table. “We knew Theo would be with you tonight so we went by their place to cheer him up and see if he wanted to have dinner with us but..

\- When we arrive there, he had pinned a letter on the door of his room.” finished Blaise before giving her a piece of parchment. 

  
  


_ “Theo,  _

_ I have gone to find Jakob Wiesinger. I know it’s too late for my mother but I have to see the end of this. I hope you’ll understand. I’ll stay in touch, this time. _

_ Draco.”  _

  
  


If someone asked Hermione what she thinks it would feel like to have her heart go up her throat and try to get out through her mouth, she would describe what she was feeling at that moment. Trembling, she said with a hoarse voice: “But, I saw him earlier.” 

Zabini came quickly and grabbed her hand “You did? When? 

\- At around 5? 6? I don’t remember..He.. He came here.

\- Oh yeah, my bad.” said Harry, shrugging his shoulders. “He said he wanted to talk to you and, since you don’t leave the house, I gave him our address. I didn’t think he would come today, though.. I gave him to him this morning!

\- Well he did. 

\- What did he want? 

\- He wanted to thank me and to.. to ask me to dinner. 

\- But I thought you had a date with Nott?

\- I did but..

\- With Nott? Come on! Granger, are you blind?” suddenly asked Pansy, getting up from her chair. 

Hermione stammered out: “wh..What?

\- Do you have a disease in your eyes that prevent you to see properly?

\- no, why.

\- Because if you didn’t, you would know he is and has always been in love with you.

\- Come on! Malfoy, in love with Hermione? That’s not..

\- Shut up, Harry.

\- Okay..”

Hermione let herself lean on the kitchen door and close her eyes for a second. “This is not happening, not again..” she kept repeating to herself. When she opened her eyes, all were staring at her. “Listen, it’s not that easy. 

\- It is.” this time, it was Ginny who had taken her hand. “You love him and you know he loves you. Some things cannot be explained and this is for sure one hell of a good example. 

\- But..

\- But nothing. You know why he’s gone again. I’m sure you have an idea on why he’s gone to look for that spell and I do too, smart witches that we are. If this is not the proof of his love you were waiting for, i don’t know what it is. Nothing is ever easy, woman. Answering yes or no to my question is: Do you have feeling for him or not?”

Hermione slowly then very quickly began to nod, bursting into tears and quickly, Ginny’s arms were around her. 

She heard Blaise mutter: “At least, someone is not ashamed to love.” to which Pansy burst into a strange mix of laughter and tears: “Ashamed? me of you? I’m ashamed of myself!! I tried to sell out Potter for fuck’s sakes! My name will go down in History as the first student in Hogwarts who tried to give Harry Potter to the Dark Lord! Who would want to be with me, with all the shit I bring with me? No one deserves that...” she ran to the door, let out a quick “excuse me” to the two girls still hugging and ran out of the house. Ginny stopped hugging her, stared at Blaise and ordered exactly at the same time as her older brother: “Go after her!” 

Lost, he looked at Hermione as if he was about to ask for permission but she whispered to him “Go. I’ll find him.” and thus, he ran. Harry let out a “Bye?!” in a whisper that made them all giggle. 

After a few minutes of welcomed silence after all those cries and tears, George asked Hermione: “What are you going to do? You want us to go with you?” to which she responded: “No, I know who to ask”. She sat straighter in her chair, a determined look on her face and added: “I found him once, i’ll find him again. Whatever it takes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the silent support! lol  
> I'd love to hear anything you have to say, from favorite lines to hopes for the next chapters to what you ate for dinner last night.


	21. Burning Hearts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> Thank you so much for your support as always. I hope you will like this messy chapter!

“I don’t know, I don't know, I don't know!!” Hermione suddenly yelled out loud, slamming both of her hands on the kitchen table, stopping everyone else from asking her questions all at once.

“Are you even sure that this professor will know?” asked gently Harry, putting a hand on hers.

“I know he helped you the first time but...look, i don’t want you to go back on the road without any real clue.. I don’t want to pretend I understand why your whole entire life has been revolving around Draco Malfoy but…” he held a hand in front of her as she opened her mouth to talk back. “I just want you to be sure you know what you are getting into.

\- What do you mean? Am I doing something illegal?” she half-spat, half-cried, visibly mentally and physically tired from the latest events. Theo put his hand on Harry’s shoulder and answered: “Going after him once, people might think you did it for Zabini, Parkinson and me. Going after him twice, this is huge Hermione. Going after him again, this time alone as you requested, it… it means something. Are you sure you are ready to face whatever this means for you?”

Around the table, Ginny, Harry, Dean and Theo were staring at her in silence. Earlier that day, George and Ron had stopped by to tell her that they had managed to get her a portkey for the next day. “I hope you know what you’re doing, ‘Mione.” had said Ron, hugging her tightly. “But i know you do…. because you always do.” “I wish I knew, Ron, I wish I knew..” she had whispered as both redhead brothers closed the door of Grimmauld Place behind them.

As she laid in bed that night, trying to catch some sleep before leaving early the next morning, she stared at the ceiling, her head filled with questions, doubt but also resolution until her eyes became heavier than her heart.

When she opened her eyes again, it had felt as if only a mere second had passed by. She was expecting to be staring at the moldy ceiling of Grimmauld Place but instead found herself looking at a chandelier, hung on a white, ornate ceiling. Looking around her, she was in some sort of a library, in what seemed to be a huge mansion. She had this feeling of deja-vu, making the hairs on her back stand. “You need to stop inviting yourself in my dreams.” she heard someone groan. Sitting on the sofa she was laying down on, she looked right in front of her and found Draco Malfoy, sitting on a sofa, a book on one hand, a glass of what looked like firewhiskey on the other.

“Where are we?

\- The library.

\- Why are you dreaming of a library?

\- I don’t know.

\- Hmm.”

He kept reading, pretending to ignore her even though she could see his eyes going back and forth on the same line. She looked around her once again.

“Is this the place…

\- It is, isn’t it? I don’t think it was a library though, last...last time I was here..

\- Stop mumbling and express yourself clearly, Granger.

\- It’s your house. and this is the room where i was tortured by your aunt.”

He put his book down and stared back at her, his grey eyes round like the moon.

“How...How did you know?” he cleared his throat.

She stood and walked around, letting her fingers run across the books. “I don’t know.. It’s a feeling. You’ve done some redecorating, I see.” she chuckled slowly. He got up and walked to the bar to get himself another drink.

“Actually, no.

\- No?

\- This is what I want to make of it. I have plans for the manor.

\- And how are we in it if it’s not done yet?

\- I have learned to manipulate my dreams. I can dream whatever I want. For example, tonight, I wanted some peace and quiet, a good book and firewhiskey.

\- That..that is impressive.

\- I haven’t mastered it of course. My subconscious still plays tricks on me.

\- Like what?

\- Like inviting other people in it through occlumency.

\- Oh..” He sat back down and put two cups of firewhiskey next to each other on the table. She saw this as an invitation to sit next to him and so she did.

Drinking a bit of the firewhiskey, she was amazed at how realistic everything was, from the taste to the burning sensation in her throat.

“Be careful, you’ll have a nasty fake hangover when you wake up.” he said. As she defiantly drank the whole cup all at once, he chuckled and got up to get the bottle from the bar. He sat back on the sofa but this time, and Hermione could not help but notice, closer to her than before.

“Malfoy..

\- Draco.

\- Draco.

\- Hermione.

\- Where are you? Why did you leave without...without saying anything?

\- What would you have done if I said something?”

He put his glass down on the table and laid back on the sofa, staring at the ceiling. She put herself in the same position, just a tiny bit closer than they were before.

“I would have gone with you.” she whispered.

He turned his face towards her and stared for a while, in silence, before saying: “Aren’t you tired of always saving me? I might not be worth saving.

\- You will always be worth it.

\- How do you know? We hardly know each other.

\- I’ve decided so. I’ve also decided to stop worrying about whether what I feel is politically correct or not. And once I make my mind on something..”

He laughed and went back to staring at the ceiling. “Oh I know…” he whispered. She knew this was a dream and one of them could easily wake up and end all of it. She knew she had to fish as much information on his location as possible but, before she even knew, she blurted out:

“Why did you ignore me the day we left the realm?

\- What do you mean?

\- You talked to pretty much everyone, even Ron but you didn’t say anything to me. Even when you left, you thanked everyone but, before I could say anything, you disapparated.

\- I..You were with your friends. I didn’t want to waste any more of you time.” he simply answered.

“Why is it so difficult?” she suddenly half-groaned, half-laughed. Draco looked back at her and his eyes seemed quite lost.

“I’m talking about you and me.” she added before laying back and putting her head on the edge of the sofa. “Ginny said something quite interesting a few days ago. She asked me to imagine if there had been no war, no concepts of mudblood and pure blood, no rivalry between the Gryffindors and Slytherins. Then she asked me what our relationship would have been. Would we have become friends since we spent pretty much all of our free time in the library? or would we still have been rivals, trying to fight each other for the first place in each class?

\- or.. I would have tried to get into your pants, probably.” he interrupted her.

She stared at him with shock and surprised, he looked at her with amusement before they both lost it and laughed.

“Wow, Malfoy...wow..

\- No, seriously. Sex was my escape back at school. I amused myself by charming witches or wizards until they slept with me and then I would go to the next one. I often wondered what kind of strategy it would take for the Golden Girl to fall for me.

\- what the ..

\- but then I guess that I would have failed.

\- What do you mean?

\- Well, for once, you were in love with the Weasel.

\- Yes but..

\- Let me finish, woman. I guess..” He turned his head in her direction. Both of their faces were as close as they had ever been. “I would have failed miserably because I would have been the one falling hard for you. I would have finally met a girl with whom I could have intelligent conversations, debates about my favorite books, with whom I could study for hours without having to make out or show off. 14yold me secretly would have loved to take you the Yule ball and then make you leave early to go hide in the library. We would have stolen some books and gone to the lake and read to each other until the sun would have gone up. I would have put my coat on your shoulders for you to not be cold. We would have argued about which champion would win the Cup based on their intelligence alone. You would have defended Potter of course while I would have sided with Diggory even though, secretly, I knew Potter was faster on his feet and a lucky bastard to have you by his side to help him prepare. And then, when your cheeks would have gone red from yelling at me for making fun of Potter, I would have kissed you.”

Breathless, she could feel her heartbeat in all of her fingers. She whispered “You’ve thought about it well, haven’t you..” to which he responded: “Yes.

\- So what is stopping you now?

\- We both know you deserve so much more. So, so, so much more..” he whispered, his eyes glistening with pain.

And there it was, that self-hatred that Hermione was tired to see in his beautiful grey eyes. Sitting straight, she put her hand on his cheek and said: “no. don’t you dare ruin this again.” She could feel him slightly tremble beneath her hand. He moved closer to her, leaning more and more towards her before they both whispered: “not now.

\- not like this..

\- yes..” as if both knew that, whatever was supposed to happen, they didn’t want their first anything to happen in a dream, as realistic as it was.

“Please, tell me where you are. You don’t have to be alone.

\- I just need to see the end of all of this. You’ve done enough. Stay with your family, your friends. It’s almost Christmas. I’ll find it as I always intended to and then I'll come back.

\- I can help you!!!!….you going alone, looking for something like that..everything about this is dangerous..”

Suddenly, everything around Hermione started to fade. Before she woke up, she could have sworn Draco had gently stroked her cheek with his hand.

_A few hours later.._

“Please come back for Christmas.

\- I will. I love you.” she whispered against Harry’s neck. She waved at the others before touching the portkey that was an old brown umbrella. When she touched the ground again, she was standing in a back alley of Coimbra. Reapparating right after at the university, her feet led her mechanically towards Professor Thomas Martins’ office. “Here we go again..” she said to herself before knocking on the door.

“So, in the end, all of this was for nothing?” the professor asked her after she had told him the whole story over several cups of coffee that quickly were replaced by Porto Wine as the story went on.

“Well, we still found him but she didn’t have it. Her right hand gave us a name but I have no idea where to start looking. I was hoping that he had come by to ask you for help.

\- No, sorry. I haven’t seen anyone magical since you guys stopped by. It has been quite boring, really..

\- What is the name, if you trust me enough to tell me?

\- I do. I don’t know why but I do. Jakob Wiesinger.”

The professor looked at her, frowned, opened his eyes widely, frowned again and then laughed. “Jakob? That grumpy old man?

\- You know him?

\- As I told you last time, there's few of us who have always believed in the Veela Realm. It is almost like a secret society, actually.. Many of us gathered a few times to compare notes and debate. Not a lot of us have managed to do what you guys actually did. I almost want to ask you the route but it would feel like cheating. It always had this mystery surrounding it that made us go back to search for it, you see. Jakob Wiesinger was always there every time we had gatherings but he hardly said anything. He just listened. I can’t believe.. Are you sure that Jakob has the spell?

\- I don’t know, she might have given us the name to make us leave quickly. What I know is that Draco is looking for him. I don’t want to...lose him again.” she finished her sentence with difficulty, staring at her glass. The professor looked at her and, smiling, said: “Then, you better go to Vienna.

\- Vienna?

\- Jakob is one of the librarians of the library of the University of Vienna.

\- Vienna… thank you, professor.” she stood up and shook his hand.

“Miss Granger.. I am glad to see you well. I hope everything works out between you two, spell or no spell.

\- What?

\- I know love when I see it, even in its most twisted and incomprehensible ways.”

Not knowing what to answer, she shook his hand once again and left his office. She made her way to the Lisbon Airport and bought a ticket for the next flight to Vienna. As tired of all of this as she was, Hermione was still happy to have a clue that brought her closer to him. Something told her that she would find him there even though she didn’t have a clue about how he managed to find the man without any help.

A few hours later, she was standing in front of the library front desk of the University of Vienna. Her younger self wanted so badly to get lost in the rows of books and try to find the english corner and stay there forever but her heart was aching and she knew that, as long as she didn’t find him, it would keep on aching.

“Excuse me? Where could I find Mr. Jakob Wiesinger?”

The young brunette sitting on the other side of the front desk, visibly very bored, said in broken english while looking at her nails: “Second time today. Very famous.

\- Someone else asked for him?

\- Yes. Handsome boy but rude, very rude.. Didn’t want to have dinner with me.

\- I see...Where can I find Mr. Wiesinger then?

\- 3th floor, office 315.

\- Thank you.”

She ran up hundreds of stairs, though long and silent corridors. She puffed and puffed, her heart beating faster than ever. Nothing about this library or the description the professor had made of Jakob Wiesinger screamed that he was dangerous but she was scared to miss Draco by a minute, she was scared he would leave again and make her run across the universe to find him again. Because deep inside, she knew, she knew that she would do it again in a heartbeat. Whatever she was feeling for Draco Malfoy was here to stay.

A sweaty ten minutes later, she finally found the office corridor, starting with the office n°310…then 311...312...313… From far away, she could see someone sitting in a chair in front of an office. A blond head in black clothes. He was staring at the painting on the opposite wall, a determined look on his face. Once again, she ran until she pretty much fell right in front of him, losing her balance. He grabbed her before she touched the floor.

“Gran..Hermione?

\- Why..did...you leave?” she puffed hard. “Why did you leave without me?” she punched his chest, tears of anger threatening to fall. "Your mother is dead, Draco! She deserves a funeral and you deserve to keep on living! What do you expect to do even if you find it, it’s not like you can make the dead live again!” she yelled, not even worrying about the surrounding muggles that could hear what she was saying. He stared at her and said: “I found a new purpose for the spell.”

She put her hands on each side of her waist and asked “And what is it, may I ask?

\- Your parents.

\- What?

\- I want to cure your parents. I want them to remember you.”

Hermione Granger suddenly felt like the whole entire world had gone silent. She could have sworn she could hear not only her heart but also his beating. Lost for words, she looked at him, waiting for him to smirk or laugh and say that it was just a very bad joke. When she saw the determined, full of hope look in his eyes, she took one step forward. Then two. Closing the distance between them, he did the same. That aching feeling she had in her heart earlier had been replaced by an intense fire, burning brighter than ever. This new sensation was suffocating, painful but at the same time warm, loud and pressing.

When she kissed his lips, Hermione Granger worried for a moment that her heart might combust. When he held her tightly against him and kissed her back with such a fervor that she had never seen or felt before, her worries disappeared. Her heart was not hers anymore to begin with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One thing i regret with this story is not having written it all before starting to publish. Or at least stuck to a story line lol..They weren't supposed to kiss but then I imagined what the impulsive Gryffindor that i am would do and..it just felt right haha
> 
> I hope you like it!


	22. Burning Candles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here it is. The end.   
> I took the last few weeks off to think about it.   
> I might have not had the whole story planned but I knew from the beginning that this is how I wanted it to end. I hope you like it.

“Mr Malfoy? Please come in.” 

After the fiery kiss they had shared, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy had both sat in silence and waited for what felt like hours before the librarian had finally opened his door, said goodbye to a very old lady and finally told them to come in.

“What is the reason for your visit, Mr Malfoy and Ms…?

\- Granger. We are here for..

\- We are here for the spell.”

Jakob Wiesinger looked like he was in his late eighties, his hair as white as snow, his face covered with wrinkles. However, Hermione noticed how his blue eyes sparkled at the mention of the spell before he managed to compose himself and pretend to be lost: “Excuse-me but this is a library. We have books. no spells.” 

The man was trying as hard as he could to keep a stoic face but Hermione could see in his eyes that fear and surprise were slowly taking control of him. Draco kept staring at him, his eyebrows slightly raised as if he were waiting for the old man to give in. After a few moments of silence, Draco let out a sigh and said: “listen, we know about the realm, we know about the spell, we know that you ran away with it.” 

Jakob Wiesinger stood up from his chair and began to pace around, scratching his head and sighing before he stopped and stared at them: “did she send you? are you...are you a veela?” he asked Draco to which he responded, laughing: “I think i have some veela blood, yes, but not enough for me to be considered one. No, we..” he pointed at himself and Hermione, “are wizards.” 

The man kept staring at him as if what he just had said wasn’t enough so Draco said: “Listen, I was almost going to become you. I was a victim of hers almost as much as you were. If you let us tell you our story, you might understand why we’ve come here for the spell.”

Slowly, the old archivist nodded and sat back on his chair before saying: “Begin.” 

Hermione was expecting Draco to begin his story from the moment he left London to search for the spell but he began to tell Mr. Wiesinger about how the first war started, who he was, he told him about the Potters, the Weasleys, the Blacks, the Notts, the Dumbledores, the Lestranges and even the Longbottoms. He then went on to talking about their years at Hogwarts, the comeback of Voldemort, the prophecy surrounding Harry, how he and Hermione stood on opposite sides of the war. As he kept talking and talking, Hermione could see the young wizard fighting against his own tears, trying to keep his face as straight and composed as he could while she was just letting her tears run free. When Draco reached the moment in the story to talk about the dead, she was surprised to hear him choke on Sirius, Dobby and Fred’s names. “They all died because of my father, his friends and...him. I will never be able to make it up for what my side did and I don’t understand how she can be standing by my side after all I did but…” He looked at Hermione, his eyes sparkling with tears. “Here we are.” 

Draco then talked about how he came to know about the realm, the spell and how he managed to find that place. Without even resting to breathe properly, he told the old man how Athalia had him under her spell, how he didn’t know he had been missing for months and how, thanks to Hermione, his friends had come to rescue him. Finally, he said: “I was going to use the spell on my mother but I was too late… Nonetheless, I want to find it for Hermione. I will never be able to repay her for saving my life but this might be a first step.”

Jakob Wiesinger, surprised, looked at Hermione for the first time since Draco had started telling his story and said: “What do you suffer from? You look healthy.

\- It’s not for me. I.. During the war, before I went on the run, I wiped myself from my parents’ memories completely and sent them to Australia.. Along with a team of specialists, I have tried everything I could to reverse the spell but… nothing worked. Almost two years later, they still do not know I exist.” she finished, her voice cracking. 

“And you believe that such a spell, if it exists..

\- We know you have it.

\- that it will bring your parents’ memories back?

\- We hope so. From our common research, we know that it can cure anything, reverse any spell besides...well, besides death.” she said, looking sorry at Draco who simply shrugged and squeezed her hand before quickly letting go. 

The old man looked at her and then at him for a while. With a long sigh, he told them: “When I first arrived at the realm, I was a young man full of dreams and expectations. I had spent my college years reading on everything I could about it, fully knowing that nobody believed in it. I was so happy to have found such a marvelous place and, after all these years, I still miss it sometimes. But I do not miss Athalia.. Her beauty was equally matched with darkness. I never remarried, you know..I could not bring myself to trust anyone again after her. I don’t know what she is up to nowadays but, back then, her main goal was to have a hand in muggle, wizard and veela affairs. She wanted to be that invisible strength hiding and commanding from the shadows. The spell is only one of the few magic reliques she has. I see myself in you, Mr. Malfoy. I, too, began to search for that spell for someone I loved..my younger brother. He had leukemia and nothing at the time was helping. But that monster managed to make me believe that I didn’t have to go back, I didn’t have to say goodbye, that I could stay with her forever. I stayed for years, not contacting my family and friends. Everybody thought I was dead. My brother passed one year after I left and he might have thought I had abandoned him, who knows.. When I finally began to open my eyes to the truth, I managed to find the spell in one of her hidden chambers and vowed myself to hide it. I swore to myself to never give the spell to anyone and to never use it even for my own profit. As sad as it sounds, nobody should have more chances at life than others, Mr. Malfoy.

\- Her parents are not sick, though! They were victims of a war they didn’t know anything of! Please, Mr. Wiesinger! I’ll give you anything you want! I have a manor! I have a few other domains across Europe that I have no need for! Tell me your price!”

By then, Hermione had closed her eyes as she could not see anything through her tears. Over the last year, she had grown to the idea of becoming a Potter. She even had trained herself to believe that Hermione Potter had a nice sound to it. More than that, she did not want to steal the identity of that young girl in Australia who had no idea of the history her name had. She hoped that by publically changing her name, she could not only close a painful chapter of her life but also give a chance to that little girl to leave in a world free of..well, the first Hermione Granger. 

When she opened her eyes again, she was surprised by the sight of Draco Malfoy kneeling in front of the librarian. The old man got up off his chair and laid a hand on the wizard’s shoulder and said, this time with a voice full of kindness and understanding: “No need for kneeling here, young man.. please, sit down. I need to tell you something.”

Draco sat back down, looking quite ashamed of losing his composure to the point of kneeling in front of the muggle. He slowly sat back and stared right in front of him at a snowball of Vienna on the desk. 

“I..I don’t know how to say this.

\- Please, sir..

\- I can give you the spell. I will give you the spell but..

This time, Hermione stood up: “Thank you, sir!! Oh merlin, thank you! You don’t know how..” 

The man held a hand up to stop her from thanking him again and said, with teary eyes: “ but I don’t know if you will like the outcome.” 

Something cold went down Hermione’s spine. Somewhere in her brain, something was telling her that she knew what he was going to say but didn’t want to accept it. Draco looked radiant, overflowing with happiness, smiling at her. 

“What do you mean?” she carefully asked, avoiding Draco’s smile.

Jakob Wiesinger stood up, locked the door of his office with a key and went towards a bookshelf. He tapped on the top of the bookshelf three times, touched a grey book on the left corner and then put his hand on the bottom of one of the shelfs which made some of the books fall down on the floor. Behind those books was a wooden box that he took and put down on his desk. 

“This is the spell. It’s a simple piece of paper with simple instructions to follow. It requires some magic and some potions but nothing that the two of you won’t be able to do. It also requires your blood, Miss Granger. 

\- Thank you, sir.

\- However, I need to tell you something..It pains me to say it..I haven’t felt my heart break like that since the day I stepped out of the realm to never look back. 

\- What is it, sir?

\- You know that this spell can only be used once, don’t you?

\- Yes.

\- Of course, there are some legends that say that once used, it disintegrates to reappear somewhere a few hundreds years later but there is no proof behind it yet. So yes, it is known to be useful only once. Miss Granger, you will have to make a choice.”

Draco straightened himself on the chair and asked: “what do you mean by making a choice?”

Mr. Wiesinger was about to answer but Hermione got ahead of him: “It means that the spell can only be used once, on only one person.”

Hermione’s hands and feet were now numb but her mind was very clear. She would never get her parents back and this was the end of it. No matter how much she wanted to, she would never impose the burden of such a secret on only one of her parents while letting the other in the dark, especially with their new daughter. 

“What Mr Wiesinger means is that I have to choose one of my parents to use the spell on..

\- But.. you performed only one spell, didn’t you? If it’s only one spell, won’t that reverse it and cure them both at the same time? 

\- I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way, Mr. Malfoy.. The spell is to be applied on the person directly and it will work as some sort of a cleanse. If Miss Granger decided to use it on, let’s say, her father, for example, she would have to perform a series of preparatory spells and potions on him in order to use the spell. It won’t work on two persons at the same time.

\- AND YOU ARE ONLY SAYING IT RIGHT NOW? DO YOU KNOW WHAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH TO GET THIS SPELL?” 

Draco was now standing, both of his hands grabbing the end of the desk. “YOU LISTENED TO OUR WHOLE LIFE’S STORY! I BROKE A FEW HUNDRED WIZARD LAWS JUST BY TALKING TO YOU ABOUT IT ALL AND YOU DECIDED TO...

\- Draco..” one hand on her forehead, her eyes closed, she was feeling too weak to do anything and Draco’s screams were making her feel even weaker. “Draco, please…” she pleaded with him but he kept on yelling at the old man who just stood there, his hands on the wooden box. 

“Listen, young man, I am willing to give you my most prized treasure because YOU told me your story. I know it’s a difficult decision but if Miss Watson decides to take it from me, she can either make the choice now or wait…

\- Wait? for what?” Hermione sadly chuckled. “For one of them to pass away? So I don’t have to make a choice?”

Draco stood behind his chair and for the first time in the last twenty minutes, talked with a very calm voice: “Mr. Wiesinger, you are telling us that there is absolutely no chance that this spell will give Mr and Mrs Granger any memory back of their daughter?

\- Yes, it’s what I'm telling you.”

He stared at the window behind the librarian, deeply nodded once and left the office without a word, leaving a dumbfounded Hermione behind. 

“I.. I thank you for your time, Mr Wiesinger.

\- Miss Granger, I wish I could be more helpful.. 

\- It’s not..It’s not your fault, sir..It’s no one’s but mine.

\- You did it to save your family, do not ever forget that. I don’t think I nor anyone I know would have had the courage to do that. To simply delete oneself from your loved one’s memory just for their sakes is just..so incredibly selfless. 

\- I am not selfless, sir. I have heard all my life that I was brilliant, that I could do anything I wanted to. I thought it would be a temporary precaution and that I would be, without any doubt, able to reverse it. I usually am able to do anything I want to.. I guess that was the wrong time to be wrong...well, I don’t regret it. Thank you for your time, Mr. Wiesinger, I should go find my friend..” she said, stammering her words while quickly getting up from her chair. 

“Wait, miss Granger! Please, take it. Use it, destroy it, give it to someone who deserves it. 

\- Me? I don’t think I should..

\- I am old, Miss Granger.. I am old and I cannot keep on living with this secret quite literally behind my bookshelf. You seem like the perfect person to entrust this secret to. 

\- I… Thank you, sir.” she replied, lost at words, as the librarian gave her the wooden box. As she opened the door of the office, Jakob Wiesinger said: “I wish you well, miss Granger. You deserve it.” to which she simply nodded and left. 

Once outside the library, she stood there for a while, rain soaking her from head to toes and making the beautiful white snow turn to grey mush. She stared at the wooden box in her hands, debating on whether to open it or not but she decided that finding where the hell Draco Malfoy had ran too was more urgent than that stupid spell. 

Hermione Granger has never tried to do occlumency. She had read about it a lot, of course, especially when Voldemort was invading Harry’s mind but she had never been interested enough to try it out. Today, however, she was worried enough about him that she was ready to try anything. The witch thought that the news had been a bigger blow for Draco than for herself as she had deducted that she wouldn’t be able to save both of her parents from all their research even before the librarian-slash-archivist had told them. Of course, when Draco told her that he wanted the spell for her parents, she had dared to hope again but what had led her to kiss him wasn’t the idea of getting her parents back but the image of a selfless act done by someone who had only known darkness. 

As she closed her eyes and concentrated on him, she swore she smelled church candles, a very familiar smell as she had spent all of her Sundays in church with her parents before leaving for Hogwarts. Looking around her, she saw a map of the city and found that there were more Churches and Chapels that she could count on her fingers. She ran towards the nearest one while it rained more and more each second that went by as the night fell onto Vienna. 

A few hours went by and Hermione had visited more religious places that she had ever had in her whole entire life. Only one small chapel was left before she was giving up for the night. 

Out of breath, she opened the heavy door of the chapel and went inside, her clothes now sticking to her skin and her hair wilder than before. There, in the front row, he was kneeling, his head down. She approached him slowly and sat on the bench near him, still leaving some space between them. 

“I never thought about what kind of relationship could wizards have with religion.” she suddenly said. “I, myself, have attended the catholic church since I was little but more for my parents and tradition than for my beliefs. I wonder if I would have done so if I had grown as a witch.”

She stared at the statue of a saint in front of her, glowing thanks to the candles at its feet. 

Draco was still kneeling, his head down, shivering and silently sobbing whereas Hermione felt strangely calm, as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. 

“You know, until today, I felt like I hadn't done everything I could. I felt like I had left so many stones unturned and that, maybe, somewhere, there would be some magical cure that I didn’t care enough to find. But now I know. I know that I did everything I could to bring them back to me and I’d like to think that if they knew, they wouldn’t be mad at me for what I did. I’d like to think that they’d understand. Because I don’t regret it. There’s actually nothing I can think of that I regret about my life until now.

\- Are you sure?” Draco’s cracked voice resonated in the empty chapel. 

She patted the bench next to her to invite him to sit and so he did, his face red from crying, his body shivering from the rain. Both of them stared at the candle’s dancing flames in silence before she said: “No, I don’t. I don’t regret helping Harry, I don’t regret leaving Ron, I don’t regret going on my own for a while, I don’t regret helping Blaise, Pansy and Theo. I…”

Hermione looked at him and continued by saying “I don’t regret punching you in the face in 3rd year, I don’t regret coming all those years later to find you… I...I don’t regret you.”

Draco’s eyes got bigger for a second, round as marbles before he shook his head and looked down at his knees: “Why don’t you? I would hate you if you did that to me. 

\- If I did what?

\- Gave me hope that I could get my mother back when in fact, I couldn’t. 

\- Yes, I could hate you for that.” she simply responded. Draco began to get up to leave but she grabbed his hand and pulled him back down, this time closer to her. 

“But I don’t. and I will never hold this against you. I’d rather thank you.

\- Thank me?” he snorted coldly. “for wasting your time when you could have been with Potter, the Weasleys or Theo?

\- Harry and the Weasleys will always be there for me. Theo and I are nothing more than very new friends who don’t know much about each other yet so no, you did not waste my time. I feel lighter. I now know what I want for myself, for family, for..a relationship.”

Draco lifted his head and Hermione could have sworn his eyes had changed from being deprived of any life to a beautiful and hopeful tone of grey. “And..What do you want?” he asked, his voice shaking. 

Hermione smiled and said: “Well, for starters, I want a cottage.”

Draco laughed to which she responded, laughing too: “No, i’m serious! I want a cottage somewhere in the British countryside, far enough from London to not feel suffocated but near enough so that I can apparate to see Harry, the Weasleys and your horrible friends whenever I feel like to. 

\- What else do you want?” he kept pushing.

“I want to go to therapy. I’m thinking about going to both, muggle therapy and to a mind healer to get the best of both worlds. 

\- Good idea, might steal it for me too.

\- Glad you like it. 

\- and then? 

\- Tomorrow, I'll sign the papers to officially become Hermione Jean Potter. 

\- Are you sure that’s what you want? You’ve always been Granger..

\- Yes but I want to leave it behind. I won’t kill anyone who will keep calling me that but I hope to start something new. 

\- and..” he put one of his legs on the other side of the bench to fully face her. “What about relationships?”

She crossed her legs on the bench to also face him completely and smiled: “Well, there is this boy that I have known my whole entire life but really don’t know much about him. I’d like to get to know him more.”

Once again, eyes as round as marbles, Draco Malfoy seemed to have lost his infamous cool as he struggled to say: “Bu..but this boy has done so much harm to you and your family, new and old.. How can you still want to give him a chance? 

\- I’m not giving him a chance. I’m giving myself a chance. The chance to finally know the little blond boy that sat all those years across the library, that made me mad when he took books out of the library when I really wanted to read them, that preferred to stay inside in the midst of books when everyone else would be outside having fun by the lake, the boy who sometimes beat me when it came to who could answer the professors’ questions the fastest.. I have always wanted to know him and now is the chance.”

She leaned forward and so did he. As their lips touched, Hermione Granger did not know if her entire body was vibrating due to the big university clock outside ringing the 12 strokes of midnight or because of the young man who she was kissing. 

“Merry Christmas Eve...Potter.

\- Merry Christmas Eve, Malfoy.” 

As they got up to leave the chapel, Draco noticed the wooden box: “Is it..

\- yes.

\- What will you do with it? You won’t..

\- No, I’m not going to use it. I thought of Neville’s parents but I don’t think he’d like to choose between them. Do you know anyone who would deserve it? 

\- No, not really. 

\- Well, I know what I’m going to do, then.” she replied, smiling. 

Hermione opened the box and carefully took out a rolled parchment. Without even taking a peek at what was written inside, she approached it to the candle flames and watched it slowly burn until it was small enough for her to make it magically disappear.

Once done with it, she left the wooden box on a bench, took Draco’s hand and left the chapel without even looking back once. 

As they apparated in front of Grimmauld Place, Draco stopped and hesitated: “Are you sure? I mean.. I don’t think..

\- Shut up and trust me.” she said, taking his hand and pulling him up the stairs. 

She rang the bell and waited, silently caressing his fingers with her thumb. When the door opened, Hermione was getting ready to give a speech full of reasons and explanations but was met with a quite funny image: Ginny and Pansy, already quite drunk, holding each other: 

“Girls? Who’s that?” she could hear Harry yell from the kitchen over the loud Christmas music and laughter.

“It’s your sister and her boyfriend. Come in, you two. George and Ron have made Nott drink just enough Moet-or-whatever that we think Dean will have to bring him home tonight.

\- You know, to take care of him and stuff..” added Pansy, before both of them left, snorting like the two nosy witches they were, towards the kitchen. 

Chuckling, Hermione looked at Draco and said: “Well..Welcome home.” to which he answered with a simple but meaningful kiss on her lips. 

As Grimmauld Place was full of old and new friends, snakes, lions and even some badgers,  thick snow started to fall down onto London, covering it just enough for everyone to wake up the next morning to a beautiful white Christmas, a clean slate full of promises of a better tomorrow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be an epilogue!   
> Stay tuned.


	23. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the epilogue!

“I can’t, Grandmother. I swear if I see them kiss that early in the morning again, I’m going to barf. 

\- You’d think that after almost 20 years together, they’d be less annoyingly in love.” 

Nova and Scorpius Potter-Malfoy were sitting on the grass of the cemetery, sharing a bottle of apple juice, some crips and sandwiches. Puffing, Nova was trying to tie her hair up but the elastic band broke due to the sheer strength of her blond curls. “Fuck. another tie bite the dust. I don’t understand why mom told dad that they should spend their 19th anniversary at home. I was already making up plans with Cleo, Erin and the cousins to have a huge slumber party. 

\- I know..Albus was supposed to steal some stuff from Uncle George’s lab for us to have fun. They leave us for days alone when Mom has to meet other foreign ministers of magic or when dad does his “Purebloods and Muggleborns need to leave in peace and harmony blahblahblah” lectures but no mam’, they stay home for their anniversary. Do you hear that, grandmother? They’ve gone senile! 

\- Dude, all of dad’s galleons won’t make me go home as long as it’s their anniversary. I don’t care if I have to sleep right here.” she nodded at Narcissa Malfoy’s tomb. 

“Well we could go to uncle Ron’s apartment. I don’t think his new girlfriend is there this week. 

\- Nope, I don’t have the keys and he’s in the US with uncle George for the opening of their shop in Atlanta. Uncles Theo and Dean? 

\- I caught them once having really loud sex. The next morning, they tried to educate me on sex as if Aunt Ginny hadn’t done that already. I’m never sleeping at their house ever again. 

\- Well, we could go to Cleo and Erin’s but aunt Pansy is getting ready for a new trial, a nasty one about an old rich fuck who raped a young girl, so I wouldn’t want to get on her nerves. I’m pretty sure Uncle Blaise has ran away to Paris this weekend for that reason.

\- Yeah, bad idea.” nodded Scorpius. “I know!” He clapped his hands together. “Aunt Ginny is coaching a team in Indonesia for the week and Uncle Harry is probably back at Hogwarts to get ready for classes so we could tell Cleo and Erin to come hang there. Here’s your dumb slumber party on a silver plater for you, sis’.

\- YES! You are not as dumb as I thought you were, big brother.” she snorted, knocking her brother out of her way before packing the rest of their lunch. 

Scorpius Malfoy, adjusting his perfectly coiffed blond hair, gently kissed the tips of his fingers before carressing the tomb. Then, he took his phone out of his pocket and said: 

“I should text everyone. Do you think Fred and Roxy can make it? 

\- They don’t text, you know that. 

\- Oh, right.. we’ll have to stop by their place, then.”

After both of them stood up to leave, Nova took her wand out and conjured lilies, white daffodils and white roses on their grandmother’s tomb. As they said their goodbyes to Narcissa and promised to visit more often before beginning to walk down the hill, the flowers sparkled and bloomed more than ever, intertwining their roots to form a crown. 

**THE END.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank you all for your support and for making it to the end.  
> This was wild ride, for sure! 
> 
> I already have my next story in the works, something very different from this one. I'll post a new chapter here to tell you about it as soon as I begin posting. 
> 
> Thank you and see you soon!


	24. New Fanfiction!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all doing well. If you are not, I hope you know that it is okay to say so and ask for help.

First, I would like to thank you guys for reading "The Veela Realm" which was my first fanfiction ever. I used to write a lot back in middle school and high school and then life happened. I'm trying to get back into it and, well.. fanfictions are my way back into it haha. It was a messy story, it didn't evolve like I wanted it to but I am still thankful for the 120 comments, 300+ Kudos and 49 bookmarks. 

This post is to announce my new fanfiction, "[ **You've Got an** **Owl**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26558596/chapters/64743952) **".**

Some of you might find the title familiar: yes, it is inspired by the 1998 movie "You've Got Mail" but it will diverge from it a lot. 

Here's the synopsis:

_**"Hermione Granger owns a muggle bookstore, a grey Scottish fold kitten and a secret penpal.** _

_**One day, Draco Malfoy comes in her shop and her whole life takes an unexpected turn.** _

_**Inspired by the movie « You’ve Got Mail » (1998). "** _

I hope you'll take a look at it!

Love,

Nova. 


End file.
